A Present to Kings — Page 9
( 9 ) rise. They believe that it was the hand of God that raised Islam and that the Power which brought about its progress was no other than the Author of the Universe. It is this view that is also corroborated by the facts of history. How, otherwise, is it possible that a man, who was placed under such circumstances when even his own people surrounded him from all sides and his companions found it hard to go out to attend to their most urgent necessities, and, not to speak of strangers, even the hypocrites who were mortally afraid of the Mussalmans, began to taunt them about their claims, seeing that they had not even a place to attend to their necessities, should still loudly and confidently declare that the keys of the treasures of Caesars and the Kesras were given into his hands, and that their empires and their palaces should be ruled over by his followers and his servants. . Thus, as, on the one hand, it will be ignoring the facts of history to attribute the rise of Islam to ordinary causes and circumstances, so on the other hand it will be unfair to ascribe its downfall to the usual causes of decay. That a number of different kingdoms ruled by different nations but all professing one common creed should meet with ruin within such a brief space of time is certainly very significant and to anyone possessing insight clearly points to the fact that there must be some special reason underlying the phenomenon. And what can the reason be save that, as Islam had achieved its miraculous success through the help and assistance of God, so have the Mussalmans met with this unparalleled downfall by incurrVerily " انا لله و انا الیه راجعون . ing the displeasure of God 77. When, next, we we live for God and to Him shall we return. " turn to the traditions of the Holy Prophet (peace be on him) we there meet with a special reference to these times, and there also we find mentioned the same one cause of all this ruin and that is that the Mussalmans will incur the displeasure of their God. . Another fact which is worthy of note is that there has been no change in the personal bravery and heroism of the