Islam Rediscovered
12. Islamic Fundamentalism
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principles of Islam and the practices of Muslims. At
least one root-cause may be traced to historical
exigency.
Since time immemorial, military commanders have
been accorded positions of great eminence in the
annals of history. It is a universal phenomenon that
the hero is idolized even in peace time and becomes
a model for the people. It is this placing of heroism
in the militaristic context which has been the
greatest underlying factor in the undue stress laid
on war in the latter phase of Islam’s history. With
the automatic accord in Muslim society of a place of
honour and importance to the heroes of the
battlefield, annalists’ subsequent compilations of
Islamic history have tended to read like an
uninterrupted series of wars and conquests.
These early chronicles having set the example,
subsequent writings on Islamic history have
followed the same pattern of emphasis on
militarism. The Prophet’s biographies were called
‘
maghazi
’, that is ‘The Battles Fought by the
Prophet,’ yet the Prophet Muhammad in fact did
battle only three times in his entire life, and the
