هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ

33. He it is Who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the Religion of truth that He may make it prevail over all religions, however hateful this may be to those who associate partners with God.⁹

9. The last two verses give important guides to understanding Islam and its history. With all its essentials of faith, pillars of worship, standards of morality, and principles of conduct, and with its sociological, economic, and administrative teachings, Islam is a pure light that illuminates minds and hearts, indeed the whole world; with respect to the world, it is like the sun. Those who oppose this light are like those who close their ears, eyes, hearts, and minds to truth and enlightenment, or to the “sun” and He Who created it, thereby darkening their own worlds. This attitude is what is meant by “unbelief” in Islamic terminology. Those who do not believe, whether they are among those who associate partners with Godor the People of the Book (see note 7, above), or if those who recognize no faith at all, have sought throughout history to extinguish this “sun” of Islam with ever-new plans and strategies. But just as they were unable to prevent its being completed, during its dawning during the Messenger’s life (see 5: 3), they have never been able to take its place or efface its splendor, even at times when they have seen it almost setting. Any plan or strategy carried out to extinguish this “sun” has no greater weight than a mere breath.

It may sometimes happen that those who identify themselves with Islam, although they are unable to represent or practice it fully in its true meaning and content, are lost to the world of unbelief. However, this never means the defeat of Islam by other religions or unbelief. By God’s mercy, Islam cannot be defeated.. Even in the last centuries, when Muslims passed through the darkest period of their history, and the world of Islam was uninterruptedly subjected to concerted attacks from all fronts by its opponents throughout the world, opponents equipped with the most sophisticated means, there have been few who have renounced Islam in favor of another religion, while many people have continued to convert to Islam from all other religions. In spite of the fact that the Muslims of today suffer from a multitude of deficiencies, even in their performance of the rites of worship as commanded by Islam, with a thousand mistakes and without true spiritual fulfillment, and in spite of every effort made by the opponents of Islam to distort its image, many people in the West are still affected by it, whether they are religious or not. The comments of Western observers who are aware of Islam’s dynamism and inextinguishable nature are very interesting. For example, Caesar E. Farah wrote the following on this subject:

Putting aside the obstacles it met and the infrequent cases of apostasy, Islam has always shown an unlimited ability to live and spread, even under difficult conditions. This capability can be explained by its essential hidden dynamism and flexibility that can go immediately into action when the need arises. The attractive qualities of Islam that bound great masses to its ranks in the early centuries continued to attract people to the same ranks even when it lost political power (al-Ezzati, 345).

Furthermore, while other religions, such as Christianity and Buddhism, have been defeated by atheistic, materialistic, and communist ideologies in several parts of the world, Islam has not lost ground. On this point, the observations of E.H. Jurji are significant:

With all its consistency, self-sufficiency and realism, and its determination that gave precedence to solidarity against racial and Marxist ideologies, with its mental rigging that can show the way to Western thought, with its determined attitude against imperialism and pillage, with its brave defense based on Qur’ānic faith that impedes all critical attacks and the plainness and authenticity of the message it brings to humanity that has strayed from the path, Islam appears before the modern world with a very special sense of responsibility. This sense of duty, which has not been spoiled by theological debates drowned in details, involved in confusing speculations, or fossilized under heavy layers of dogma, takes its strength from doctrines based on revelation. (ibid., 348)