It expresses the fundamental belief, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.” This phrase places Islam into the category of monotheism with other religions like Christianity and Judaism. The phrase is considerably similar to the first phrase of Christianity’s Ten Commandments. The first commandment is “You shall have no other gods besides me.” It also stands apart from the other religions though because it announces the prophetic mission of Muhammad. After completing a religious obligation, all Muslims must recite the …show more content…
In order to fill this void caliph was selected. According to Jackson Speilvogel, a caliph is a temporal leader. Under the leadership of the caliph the Islamic Empire continued to spread outside the Arabian Peninsula. In the next couple decades after Muhammad’s death, Islam spread through almost all of the Middle East. They took control of Syria in 640 and defeated the Persian Empire by the year 650. The Muslims also moved east into Africa. Much of northern Africa came under Muslim control, including Egypt. Much of East Africa was influenced by Muslim settlers. The natives that surrounded the settlements adopted Islam (Trimingham, 1-2). The expansion did not stop with northern Africa or the Middle East. Eastern Asia was also penetrated by Islam. The Muslim Empire made an attempt to enter the Mediterranean and Europe. Attacks were made on both the eastern and western sides of the Mediterranean. The Muslims were able to push into Spain but were halted by the Franks in France. On the other side they tried to destroy the Byzantine Empire at its source, Constantinople. Their attempt failed though. Christianity in Europe was saved from the Muslims (Speilvogel,