The True Jihad
Non-Violence and Islam
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of ideology, such a revolution would be brought
about as would establish the ideological supremacy
of Islam forever. God has already brought it into
existence potentially: believers have only to tap and
convert this potential into reality.
The aim of the revolution brought about by the
Prophet and his companions in the seventh century
is stated to be
izhar ad-din
in the Qur’an:
They desire to extinguish the light of Allah with
their mouths: but Allah seeks only to perfect His
light, however much the disbelievers may abhor it
(9:32-33).
Izhar
in Arabic means dominance/ascendancy/
supremacy. Here
izhar ad-din
signifies intellectual
and
ideological
dominance,
not
political
dominance. This means that in intellectual and
ideological respects, God’s religion assumes
ascendancy over all other ideologies and religions
for all time.
Granting ideological ascendancy to God’s religion
was no simple matter. It amounted to the writing of
history afresh. For although God’s religion had
