Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
2. The Emergence and Legacy of the Prophet Muhammad
~ 28 ~
natural qualities needed for dedication to a cause.
Added to this there was the fact that the two great
powers of the day lay on the borders of their
country. It was only natural that the mighty empires
of Rome and Persia should not take kindly to the
emergence of a new power on their doorstep. In
their attempt to arrest the rise of Islam, they waged
war against the Muslims. In so doing, they forced the
Muslims to fight back. This gave the Muslims the
chance to conquer the empires of Rome and Persia,
whose borders, at that time, extended to the farthest
reaches of the known world. There is no doubting
the fact that the conquests of Islam were not wars of
aggression against others; rather they were a
response to aggression from others. They were wars
of self-defence and never, in any country of the
world, have there been two minds on the
justification for such wars.
Over and above the political significance of these
events was the fact that the Islamic revolution
opened out hitherto unexplored opportunities for
humanity. It made God’s revealed religion a
historical reality, something that it had not been
before.
