The enormous challenges and the mighty obstacles the Muslim Ummah faces in contemporary world cannot be tackled without Muslims implementing Islam in deeds. The late Egyptian scholar, Muhammad Al-Ghazali, expounds on this in his book Fiqh-us-Seerah A few days had not passed since the Prophet's death (peace be upon him) when Islam became entangled in a fierce struggle with paganism, which suddenly came back to life, and Christianity, which controlled the north of the peninsula, prevented anyone from entering Islam and stopped its spread by force. The desert had not seen the like of these violent battles during the lifetime of the prophet himself. The battlefields were fierce, the costs more and the losses greater. But the men whom the Prophet had brought up with knowledge of the Truth and sacrifice for it were sincere in their actions to Allah and bore the heavy burdens that were thrust upon their shoulders as gallant heroes. They broke the backbone of paganism in the peninsula, squeezed out its lifeblood and destroyed it forever. They routed the Romans at the borders where the latter had spread their arrogance. Then they returned to Medina not to relax but to spread out in the then populated world in a systematic order and by inspiration from a foolproof law. Within a few years Islam had filled land and sea, ear and eye. Now after 14 centuries have elapsed since that glorious era. Islam is no more ruling its Ummah, not to speak of steering the world to a land worth mentioning or to goodness worthy of mentions. The other religions are living on the brink of death, the existing civilizations do not allow religion to take hold of their reins. The Muslims have been stained with the pollutions of deviations and adherence to rituals. The vices of weakness and ignorance have relegated their condition. Only an insignificant minority of them remains up to today fighting Jahiliyyah and holding fast to the Truth. If there is hope in the fact that Islam has remained preserved from the theoretical point of view in its two major sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah, then this preserved knowledge can never make action superfluous. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that those who do correct work for Islam are encountering severe opposition from various other fronts and I mean the fronts which have opposed its spread since the time of its inception 14 centuries ago and have never cooled off for one day in their enmity towards it. The mischief-makers hate Islam because it is the truth with a voice which defends itself and proclaims whatever it contains and refuses to hide or keep silent. This characteristic of Islam, the characteristic of enforcing the truth and decrying falsehood, has annoyed its adversaries and made them fabricate accusations against it. Thus, if it refuses to compromise it is the attacker and if it refuses to die under the plots of its enemies it is said that is being spread by force! This is the secret of the tale which is told that Islam was spread by the sword, though Islam only unsheathed the sword in order to save itself from the danger of the mob and the brigands. Had it been left without intrigues, it would never have lifted a knife and would have remained content with the use of the tongue in place of the sword. Yes, in this respect it is very firm. What else could be expected of it when it has to confront enemies who are spurred on by the haughtiness and prejudice of long centuries as well as erring ways which hide behind thick jungles of men and arms? Had it not been for this firmness, Islam's moral and scientific principles would not have remained intact to this day. Those religions before it which had weakened were pulled by their enemies in a hideous manner from their roots and have never been able to return safely to them. As for Islam, today you find it, if not in its adherents, then at least in its book.
