Factors Of Success - Background of the Birth of Islam [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Factors Of Success

In the previous chapters the main topics of our
discussion comprised of a survey of the political and
social conditions attending upon the birth of Islam and
the situation at its commencement. Detailed description
covering the environments prevailing in Arabia and the
Hejaz region as the birth-place of Islam followed by
pertinent information about Yemen, Omman and Iraq which
at that time was under the government of Hira, and then
about the regions of Shaam, Lebanon and Jordan a part of
which was ruled by the Ghassanis having an Arab
government. This was followed by a description of the
empire of Iran as the eastern neighbour comprising
present Iran, a part of Uzbekistan, Azarbaijan, Russia
and even a part of modern Turkey. Then followed the
description of Roman empire comprising Syria, the
Lebanon, Turkey, Bulgaria and present Greece. This was
followed by a survey of Egypt which had only sparse
population in the south, which too developed after Islam.
Then we dealt with Abyssinia comprising the present
Abyssinia and a part of Sudan.

Outside this circle of neighbouring territories, there
remained two relatively civilised regions, namely India
and China which were remote from the land of Islam and
had almost no connection with the Islamic movement. For
this reason no details have been discussed even though in
the Prophet's time certain groups were sent to China
specifically as missionaries to Tibet to invite people to
Islam where they reached Tibet in the time of Abu Bakr.

In this part of the discussion it is intended to reach
certain from the preceding discussion.

Conclusion

The leading conclusion from the preceding discussion
is that the movement of Islam began in centrally located
region which is now the geographic heart of the Islamic
world, and was at that time completely backward
civilisation. Scientific and technical resources were nor
existent, nor did it have wealth or any form of a
government. Its people led a tribal life. The original
base of the Islamic movement was surrounded by neighbours
all of whom were well ahead in their civilisation and
paid scant attention to this area because of their
historical precedence. The king of Persia Khusrow Parviz,
had written to his envoy to go and see who was the one to
have dared to write to him asking him "to accept
monotheism in order to enter the garden of bliss".
He wanted to know who was it that had the courage to
address him at all! And ever if he had something to
communicate he should have given due consideration to
established protocol. He upbraided his governor in Yemen
desiring him to chastise the writer for having addressed
the Emperor of Iran!

The neighbouring countries regarded this region
(Arabia) too worthless to maintain any contact with it.
Even today no communications exist with neighbours and if
one was to come out of Mecca and Medina, one would come
across no habitation or water for a radius of several
hundred kilometers, and although it borders onto the Red
Sea, this sea is to no avail as it affords no source of
irrigation. It was too backward culturally and
economically and even politically to have been able to
influence any of its neighbours. In view of these
conditions, what was it in the Islamic movement that
enabled it to spread so rapidly and extensively in less
than a quarter of a century and overcome all the
neighbouring lands?

The causative factor may be considered from two
angles, firstly about its effects on the people of Arabia
itself and the deep transformation which resulted among
them. What was it that made them undergo such a radical
change?

How did the movement give them the competence and the
ability to promote the mission of Islam? How could they
so suddenly change from a tribal society into an
organised central government, so that within two or three
decades it came to be regarded as the model of a powerful
state in the world? Whichever history one read one would
witness mention of 'Umar bin-Khattab as a powerful and
intelligent ruler.

Secondly, what attraction did the movement of Islam
possess that it spread so rapidly over all the
neighbouring lands? In a previous discussion it was
stated by one of the participants that possibly the
reason for such rapid progress was that heralded freedom
and its breaking of social bonds and any movement which
declared these goals, would have spread just as rapidly
as Islam. I postponed my reply to that question until now
and I had purposely delved into the details of early
history to show that had 70 or 80 years before the
movement of the Prophet of Islam, the Mazdaki faith made
its appearance in Iran al lowing a good deal of freedom
and even license, but it failed to make any headway. The
faith of Manichaeus which gave an ideological code and
which had appeared two or three (in one doubtful version
about five) centuries before Islam in Iran, also gained
no success. How was it, then, that this alien movement
coming from a remote and strange land made such an
overwhelming entry and so easily overcame all lands
including almost the entire civilised world of the time?

To illustrate the importance of this matter, let us
quote from a European subscriber to the Encyclopedia
Britannica, also in order to know the point of view of an
opposing source concerning the movement of Islam:

"Had a small Christian contingent been maintained
in Arabia, that same emperor of Abyssinia alongwith the
Christian government of that country would have been able
to crush Muhammad (a.s.) in his cradle and destroy him,
and Abyssinia would have succeeded in checking a movement
which was to change the social, political and religious
conditions of the world and cause a revolution in the
political, social and religious conditions of the
world."

This is the view of a Christian adversary whose
observation "Muhammad would have been crushed in his
cradle" reveals the degree of his animosity and
rancour. It is therefore worth considering what spirit
and moral power was inherent in this revolution that
according to this Christian historian, even a small
Christian contingent in Hejaz could have contained its
progress in the initial stage.

Principal Factors for the
Movement's Success

In conclusion it is intended to study what factors
contributed to accelerate the progress of Islam as a
world wide movement:

a) Unshakable Faith

The leading consideration relates to the starter of
the movement, namely the holy Prophet of Islam. He held
unshakable faith in his mission; for without such strong
intrinsic faith success would have been quite uncertain.
This is particularly true of a movement where success is
in any case fairly risky.

b) Competence and Efficiency

The leader of the movement, namely the holy Prophet
himself, possessed remarkable competence, efficiency and
sagacity in discharging his tasks, and knew exactly what
steps to take in every case. As recorded by numerous
non-Muslim writers, his approach was methodical as of a
highly experienced, capable and knowledgeable person. He
handled his affairs with the expertise of a specialist.

c) Decisiveness

Owing to the two above mentioned personal qualities,
namely unshakable faith and competence, the Prophet was
never at a loss while faced with the events and crises in
his life. The Prophet led the movement of Islam for 23
years, during all this period one does not come across
even a single incident where he was uncertain or at a
loss for a decision. On the contrary, he displayed utmost
patience, coolness and decisiveness on every occasion.
Among the various events in the course of the movement of
Islam, some are related to the period before his
migration to Medina where these qualities are evident and
also certain events following the migration which reflect
his decisiveness and explicitness. As an example, after
his migration to Medina in the "Hudaibiya"
peace negotiations which occurred in the eighth year of
Hijra, an unforeseen crisis arose for the Muslims. The
Prophet had told them that they could proceed as the Hajj
pilgrimage to Mecca in that year, consequently they left
Medina prepared for the pilgrimage unarmed and unprepared
for a fight. When they approached Mecca, the infidels of
Mecca refused their entry saying all but the Prophet and
the Muslims could enter Mecca. This refusal greatly
displeased the Muslims, especially as at the time a state
of peace existed between the infidels of Mecca and the
Muslims. In response to the infidels refusal, most of the
Muslims declared that they would fight their way into
Mecca. The holy Prophet was faced with a predicament,
since firstly they were not armed for battle, and
secondly a battle during the Hajj season would not have
been good publicity for the Muslims, since it would be
said that the Muslims showed no regard for Hajj. Moreover
the outcome of the battle was uncertain. On the other
hand the refusal to adverse effect on the Muslims. What
could the Prophet do in such a situation? With
extraordinary finality he declared that he would renew
the peace with the infidels despite their having revoked
the earlier treaty and abstain from the exercise of
force. It was such a strange decision for the followers
of the Prophet, that 'Umar bin Khattab, one close
follower, expressed that he had never doubted the
Prophet's words to the extent of the day of the
"Hudaibiya Peace Accord" -because he had said
they would visit Mecca that year.

The matter of Hudaibiya Peace Accord is one of the
most instructive episodes in the history of Islam,
showing how the crisis was handled so adroitly by the
Prophet. The Muslims turned back from the journey, but
after a short time even those who had been opposed to the
peace, came to realise how politically favourable that
peace had been for the Islamic ummah.

d) Peculiarities of Prevailing Political
Environment

Another issue which is directly related to the
foregoing problems is that the Prophet's actions
throughout the progress of the Islamic movement were
appropriate to every stage under the prevalent
conditions. During his 13 years of stay in Mecca, with
the exception of one or two minor incidents, no armed
clashes ever took place between Muslims and non-Muslims.
One case was that occurred in those early years when the
Muslims' numbers were small and at prayer time had no
security, neither in their homes nor beside the Ka'aba or
elsewhere. At home if the husband was a Muslim and his
wife and children were idol worshippers, they would make
fun of him whenever he stood up to pray, and a quarrel
ensued. In the Ka'aba the idolaters would jeer at and
often molest the Muslims. Thus they were forced to seek
privacy for prayers in the mountains where numerous
passes afforded seclusion.

One day while a number of Muslims including Sa'd
bin-Abi Waqas. had proceeded to such a secluded place and
were busy offering their prayers, when a number of
infidels who were passing by, noticed them and began to
jeer at them. The Muslims paid no head and continued with
their prayers, but when the infidels resorted to molest
some physically, Sa'd got annoyed and attacked them with
a stick or a camel's bone which he found there, and broke
one person's head. This was the first blood shed in
defence of the Muslims, by a man who was later to become
one of the commanders of the Army of Islam. However, this
was an incident not war. During all those 13 years in
Mecca, the Prophet prudently paid heed to the political
conditions. This point merits attention and
understanding, since in those conditions prevailing in
Arabia a lone man would be subjected to molestation and
even his life would be in danger. But a person who had a
family to rely on, or belonged to a tribe that supported
him, no one dared hurt him. This was a particular
condition then existing. With regard to the prophet, so
long as Abu-Talib lived, he had his support and of the
Bani-Hashim tribe and those of the tribe of Quraish with
whom mutual relations existed. When Abu-Talib died, in
the tenth or eleventh year of his prophethood, the
conditions became difficult for the Prophet. Abu-Lahab
became the head of the family of Bani-Hashim and he was
from the first opposed to the Prophet, and thus the
Prophet was left without any political support. What
could he do? He went here and there and contacted various
groups to secure political support for himself.

However, by that time the number of Muslims had risen
to between 60 to 80, even more including these who had
migrated to Abyssinia. The infidels regarded the Prophet
and his followers as a tribe in their own right political
and military potential but the Prophet himself did not
consider this situation satisfactory and sought stronger
support elsewhere[72] to make up for the lost support of
the Bani-Hashim.

When his contacts with a number of tribes produced, he
began to prepare himself for migrating to Medina, and
after some negotiations with the tribes of Aus and
Khazraj of Medina during Hajj, he finally decided to
undertake this epic journey. Thus so long as the Prophet
had not succeeded in creating a new political institution
as well as a strong political base that could sustain
itself in Arabia, he sought support from other dependable
sources. In the interval between the demise of Abu-Talib
and the migration to Medina, which was not a long one, he
was still protected by his relatives. For instance if
Abu-Lahab was his opponent, then 'Abass was a person of
high status in the Bani-Hashim clan who dearly loved the
Prophet, and Abu-Lahab, too, had to pay some regard to
family relations.

Accordingly it shows that the Prophet paid due heed to
the political conditions then prevalent conformity which
was another factor towards his success. When he arrived
in Medina, contrary to the records of certain historians
that there was no house where the Qur'an was not recited,
there were many houses where not even one had yet
embraced Islam. Although there was at least one Muslim in
a number of houses, the Prophet initially practised his
former way in the movement. For instance, in the battle
of Badr when he left Medina with the Muslims, he said to
them: "We are going to attack a caravan." There
was no mention of a war, but when they were out of Medina
and the subject of war came up, he formed a council and
asked them whether they were prepared for a war.
Historians write that the reason for this question was
that in the terms of his accord with the tribes of Aus
and Khazraj, they had undertaken to defend him in Medina,
whereas, then the question of a war outside Medina was
proposed, and this matter, was outside the agreement.
Therefore he wished to know that apart from their accord
whether they would agree to join him in a war or not?
Such observance of established social traditions served
as a factor for his success.

e) Decisive Response

Throughout the entire period of his invitation to
Islam the Prophet gave a clear answer to all matters
which were put forth. During his stay of 13 years in
Mecca, one does not come across holy verses or topics
related to administration, taxes, Friday and 'Id prayers
and the like, since the main problems then were social
conduct and related with divinity such as the manner of
performance of devotional acts, prayers, fasting, ethics
and the combat with polytheistic practices, selfishness
and moral corruption. There was then little of political
aspects. Of course, equality was practised within the
group, and from the very beginning, the Prophet himself,
lived like a brother with other Muslims. But when he came
to Medina, fresh problems arose, and he showed full
preparedness to deal with each one of them, and his
decisive approach proved to be a factor for his success
in promoting the movement.

f) As a Herald of Freedom

From the very beginning the Prophet declared himself
to be the herald of freedom, the herald of equality,
justice and equity, and this proved to be a very
effective factor in the success of Islam. He explicitly
declared that an Abyssian slave and a Quraish Sayid of a
noble house were equal before him. Equality justice and
fraternity were without doubt his winning qualities which
were related particularly to the Prophet and Islam.

g) Filling the Existing Socio-political
Vacuum

Another important point which served as a factor in
the Prophet's success was that he commenced the Islamic
movement in the environment of Hejaz where the great
powers of that time did not have an important base, and
where in fact a relative social and political vacuum
prevailed. It is true that the Prophet's power as
compared with the strength of the infidels of Hejaz was
at the beginning quite weak, but, as we have said, he
enjoyed the full support of Abu-Talib, and no one dared
make an attempt on his life. Even in the night of his
emigration they could not attack him singly or a clan.
They decided to pick a young man from each of the tribes
so that all the tribes would share the guilt in the
attempt on the Prophet's life, and they thought of this
plot only as the Prophet had departed for Medina. In
Mecca, therefore, it would appear there existed small and
scattered power-groups that the Prophet could deal with
and such great powers as Rome, Iran, Abyssinia and Egypt
had no strong foothold in Hejaz to take any steps. The
extent to which the influence of these powers in Hejaz
was still in the hands of the infidels and had not till
then been captured by the Prophet and a peace treaty
existed between them, and the Prophet felt easy in his
mind that after the battle of Khandaq (Ahzab) they would
be too afraid to resort to a fresh assault, the Prophet
began writing letters to the rulers of neighbouring
countries as we have earlier mentioned. He dispatched
letters to the rulers of Hira, Ghassan, Jordan, the
Governor of Yemen, the King of Abyssinia, King of Egypt,
Emperor of Rome and to Khusrow Parviz, Emperor of Iran.
This universal invitation to Islam was initiated in the
sixth year of migration.[73] Those who presume that the
Prophet had brought Islam primarily as a faith meant
exclusively for Arabia and the Arabs, do not appear to
know in what year he sent this invitation to all the
regions neighbouring Arabia. He would dispatch one Muslim
as his courier bearing his message. In the case of Iran,
when his letter reached Khusrow Parviz and he saw that
the letter began with the words: "From Muhammad,
prophet of Allah, to Khusrow, King of Fars", he
became very angry to see his name appear after that of
the Prophet[74] and tore the letter up. He directed
Badhan, his Governor in Yemen[75] to send a couple of his
soldiers to Yathrib and arrest the man who had dared
write such a letter to him and had made such claims, and
have then bring him to the royal court.

This goes to show how little did Khusrow Parviz know
of Muhammad (a.s.) in Arabia and that he was completely
ignorant about his the prophet's wars, a number of
battles, victorious in all except one. Muhammad (a.s.)
was poised for further actions abroad, and he was not the
one to be simply arrested by sending a pair of soldiers.
This story shows the existence of a vacuum in the
birthplace of Islam as regards the awareness of the great
political powers of the time-which merits detailed study.

It was not only Khusrow Parviz who was ignorant about
Muhammad (a.s.); Heraclius, Emperor of the Eastern Roman
Empire, despite his closer links with Arabia, was in a
similar situation; when he received the Prophet's letter,
he said: "Go and see if there are any Arab traders
in Syria who can give me some information about
Muhammad(a.s)." As it happened, Abu Sufiyan, a sown
enemy of the prophet right to the end, and till then did
not even pretend to have embraced Islam, was in Shaam. He
came and speaking diplomatically began his criticism of
the prophet but unintentionally mentioned some thing
which interested Heraclius. Heraclius asked him what kind
of a person he was in their community? Abu Sufiyan said
that he was honest and had a good name. The main point is
that Heraclius, too, had no knowledge of Muhammad (a.s.),
and even his courtiers had never heard anything about the
Prophet. The persons who were better informed about the
Islamic movement were firstly, Negus who had received two
Muslim missions earlier, and Maquqass, king of Egypt. The
powerful rulers round about Mecca and Medina and Hejaz
region had no interests in that land since it neither
yielded revenue nor was it suited to exploitation and
colonisation. The region was also remote from them and
was nothing but a burning hot desert. Perhaps any new
movement has the possibility of growing in a place where
a relative political vacuum exists. This is, of course,
not the sole condition for the growth of a movement,
since there have been other movements which have grown in
places devoid of such political vacuum and even under
local pressure, however the possibilities of success grow
more favourable in a state of a political vacuum so that
dominant forces do not crush it is the offing.

In short the movement of Islam was a perfectly
comprehensive movement from an ideological viewpoint
which could provide decisive response to all the
questions, realistic response, useful and practical in
every way. It was led by someone who had profound faith
indomitable spirit forebearance and perseverance, a
leader who had participated in every phase of the
movement, and had fully shared all the difficulties with
the rest, and was not the kind of a leader who would sit
in a corner and issue orders to others. In addition, all
this took place in a socio-political vacuum.

These thus were the original factors leading to the
success of the movement, but naturally behind all these
were the divine will and His aid from which the Muslims
benefited repeatedly. But Divine pleasure is not a gift
freely bestowed on everyone; as the holy Qur'an proclaims
repeatedly in various verses that there is victory sent
by God, but one should also make an endeavour,[76] they
made the endeavour and victory was theirs, as promised.