Islam Rediscovered
20. The Revolutionary Role of Islam
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world. We would probably be right in saying that
the 20th century saw the culmination of this
process.
There are two basic aspects to this movement. One
was the end of religious persecution. (This kind of
persecution has been mentioned in the Qur’an as
‘fitna’
). (8:39)
The process began with the end of idolatry and was
completed during the lifetime of the Prophet. The
other, the advent of religious freedom, came about
later, during the pious caliphate; with the
disintegration of the two great empires—the
Sassanid and Byzantine—the two greatest pillars of
religious persecution were uprooted, and religious
freedom became the order of the day. However, no
great revolution materialises all of a sudden. It
reaches fruition only by a long historical process,
and the Islamic revolution was no exception to this
rule. The process of human liberation, initiated by
Islam, continued over a long period to make
advances through individual and collective efforts,
taking various forms. The second Caliph, Umar
Faruq (d.644) addressing one of his governors and
