In one word, if Islam is under attack, it means Islam is on the defensive.

In one word, if Islam is under attack, it means Islam is on the defensive. What (war) tactics are required to lift the siege (the attack)? Is Islam doing the right thing, in the right way? Does Islam appreciate the precariousness of its situation? Who are the generations and the decision-makers in this situation? Are the people carried along? These are the issues to be addressed in this discourse. I.

THE CONDITION It was Napoleon Bonaparte, the French General who once said that God is on the side of the better battalion. How can we explain the siege that Islam is under? Historically, as the Qur’an has declared, the Truth has come in the advent of Islam, and falsehood has collapsed, as it is bound to.

(4) The phenomenal success of Islam in all lands and climes gradually, through time, ended up with the condition in various Muslim lands, of their outright defeat by the enemies who hitherto had cringed “in the face” of the might of the valiant Muslims. When the Muslim Arabs marched out in hordes immediately after the Prophet’s (SAWA) death in mid 7th century, the whole world jittered.

Great empires collapsed one after another under the waves of Muslim armies, in Persia, (5) in Chaldea and Mesopotamia (635), in Egypt (6) in the Maghrib. (7) In these places and other various places, the conquests of Islam led to the establishment of Muslim rule and Islamic law. In the words of Professor Gibb, the spread of Islam led the way to a new integration of peoples and cultures.

(8) Soon after, the cracks appeared in the centre of the Islamic Empire starting early in the Battle of Siffin (I. Siffin symbolized the clash, as Malek Bennabi puts it, of the Qur’anic spirit -represented by Imam Ali (AS)- with the Jahiliy spirit -represented by Mu’awiya the son of the Prophet’s archenemy Abu Sufiyan. In any case, as Islamic civilization flourished in various Muslim lands, an almost imperceptible internal decay developed.

Dynasties were formed, and mutual antagonism, rivalry and unhealthy competition flourished. The Muslims lost sight of the élan, the very dynamism of their call that had seen them triumph over others. Muslims, as it were, rested on their oars, the sea ride slowed down, Muslims neglected their arsenal, and they took their enemies for granted.

To borrow the phrases of the Father of sociology, Ibn khaldun, the Muslims like city dwellers became effete population luxuriating in their achievements until the hordes of primitive tribes descended on them.