From One Man In The Desert To A Global Faith

The historical record provides remarkable context: Islam did not begin in the capital of a powerful empire - Muhammad began his mission in seventh-century Makkah without an army or political institution, preaching pure monotheism in a society attached to tribal practices; he and his followers endured ridicule and persecution, yet the message survived.

After the Hijrah to Madinah the community became organised, and within a remarkably short period Islam confronted and defeated territories of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, spreading across the Middle East, North Africa, Persia and beyond. The Qur'an had already announced the outcome. Nor did Islam remain an Arab religion: today Muslims are found across every continent, with the largest populations outside Arabia - Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria - and Pew Research Center estimated the world's Muslim population at about 2 billion in 2020, the second-largest religious group.

Consider the circumstances: one man, a remote society, intense opposition, persecution, a message that survived its founder, expanded with extraordinary speed, crossed ethnic and geographical boundaries and became a civilisation spanning continents - all consistent with the Qur'an's repeated declaration (61:9; 9:33; 48:28).