Muhammad: The Prophet of Revolution

Within one hundred years this revolution had vanquished both the Sassanian and the Byzantine Empires. With the fall of these two great empires of the world, Islam annexed the territory extending from Iran and Iraq to Bukhara in the east, while in the west, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and then the whole of North Africa, were conquered by Islam. And the torrent did not halt there. In 711 AD Islam surged forward across the Straits of Gibraltar into the Iberian Peninsula. In 732 a Frankish prince, Charles Martel, arrested the advance of Islam at Tours. Then followed the Crusades, stretching over two centuries, and after the Crusades the horrific onslaughts of the Tartar tribes. But despite these attacks from outside, the Islamic Empire held its own until the 15th century, when, due to infighting among the Muslims themselves, Spain was lost. It was then the turn of the Turks and the Mughals to be aroused by the spirit of Islam. In 1453 the Turks conquered Constantinople and advanced into Eastern Europe as far as Yugoslavia. A Turkish army remained encamped outside Vienna until 1683. In the 16th century the Mughals established Islamic rule in India and Afghanistan. Over the last thirteen centuries Muslims have spread to every corner of the globe. Close on four dozen countries of Asia and Africa have come to constitute a Muslim world. According to the World Muslim Gazetter (1971) published by the Muatamar Alam Islami, there are 900 million Muslims in the world today. This was all the result of twenty-three year effort conducted in Arabia under the Prophet’s guidance. In this short space of time, the Islamic revolution not only assured itself of a permanent place in human history; it also created a new history of its own. Man does not have it in him to accomplish such a gigantic task; it can only be done by God. The Islamic revolution was truly the work of God. When the Muslims were returning from victory in the Battle of Badr, some people met them in a place called Rauha. They congratulated the Muslims on their victory. “What are you congratulating us for?” Salma Ibn Salama answered. “The enemy were just like tethered camels, and we duly slaughtered them.” (Tahzeeb Seerat Ibn Hisham, 153) It seems as if God had made special arrangements for all this beforehand. From the bare Arabian desert He raised up a people of extraordinary tenacity, a people whose characters had been tempered by their environment. They knew only acceptance or denial; for them there was no third alternative. In them were preserved all the natural qualities needed for dedication to a cause. Added to this there was