Islam Rediscovered
21. Islam in History
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Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him,
preached a sermon, generally known as the Sermon
of the Last Pilgrimage, in the presence of all of his
companions. One of the points in his address on
which the Prophet laid emphasis was that God had
sent him “as a mercy to all mankind
,
” and that this
being so, they should communicate this message of
peace to all people everywhere. In obedience to this
injunction given by the Prophet towards the end of
his life, his companions travelled far and wide
beyond the boundaries of Arabia. Indeed, they
spent the rest of their lives carrying out their
Prophet’s command. Thereafter, their successors, as
well as the disciples of these successors, continued
to make it their mission to disseminate the
teachings of Islam, to the point where finally, the
message of Islam had reached the greater part of the
known, inhabited world of that age. This
da’wah
process, from beginning to end, was carried out in
an entirely peaceful manner. The mere introduction
of the ideology of Islam was sufficient to conquer
the hearts of the people. British historian, Sir Arthur
Keith writes of the Egyptians:
