From the book "Islamic Sufism" published by A.S. Noordeen G.P.O. Bo !""##$ %"&"'(uala )umpur$ *alaysiaFrom The Gospel of Islam by Duncan Greenlus: "The nobility and broad tolerance of this creed, which accepts as God-inspired all the real religions of the world, will always be a glorious heritage of mankind. n it could indeed be built a perfect world religion." !orthrop "toddard #hD from +he Ne, -orld Of Islam says: "The rise of $slam is perhaps the most ama%ing e&ent in human history. "pringing from a land and a people alike, pre&iously negligible, $slam spread within a century o&er half of the earth, sheltering great empires, o&erthrowing long established religions, remoulding the souls of races, building up a whole new world -- the world of $slam. The closer we e'amine this de&elopment, the more e'traordinary does it appear. The other great religions won their way slowly, by painful struggle and finally triumphed with the aid of powerful monarchs, con&erted to the new faith. (hristianity had its (onstantine, )uddhism its *soka and +oroastrianism its (yrus, each bending his chosen cultby the mighty force of secular authority. !ot so $slam. *rising in a desert land sparsely inhabited by a nomad race, pre&iously undistinguished in human annals, $slam sallied forth on its great ad&enture with the slenderest human backing and against the hea&iest odds. ,et $slam triumphed with seemingly miraculous ease and a couple of generations saw the fiery crescent borne &ictorious from -the. #yrenees /France0 to the 1imalayas /Tibet0 and from the deserts of (entral *sia to the deserts of (entral *frica. 2uhammad, an *rab of the *rabs, was the &ery incarnation of the soul of his race. #reaching a simple, austere monotheism, free from priesthood or elaborate doctrinal trappings, he tapped the wellsprings of religious %eal -that was. always present in the "emiticheart. Forgetting the chronic ri&alries and blood feuds which had consumed their energies in internecine strife, and welded into a glowing unity by the fire of their new found faith, the *rabs poured forth from their deserts to con3uer the earth for *llah, the one true God... For the first three centuries of its e'istence /*.D. 456-7,6660 the realm of $slam was the most ci&ili%ed and progressi&e portion of the world.