What caused Islam to spread quickly?

Answer 1

Get a translation of the Qur'an in English - there are many good ones - and read it. Then you will know how Islam gained many converts. Your mind will be opened and you will understand the true message of God - and you will see where Jewish and Christian teachings have gone astray from the original message. Make a prayer to the One God to guide you - then read.

Answer 2

For the same reasons any other religion spreads quickly.

Present day and/or past, and in no particular order:

1. A large number of people have become unsatisfied -- for whatever reason/s -- with their old religion at a time when a new one is becoming known in their vicinity.

2. A ruler is converted, then orders his subjects to convert.

3. An area is conquered and acquires the religion of its conquerors, sometimes by mandate, but more often simply because there are benefits to be gained by embracing various aspects of one's conquerors' culture.

4. It is the religion of a higher or more powerful class; therefore, many of those with aspirations of upward social, political, and/or economic mobility convert.

5. A charismatic preacher reaches a lot of people, by either traveling, mass media, or both, and word spreads about both him and his message.

Same old same old stuff.

Note to Garretts: There have been times and places where conversion to Islam was considered an honor and a privilege that had to be earned. Attempts by captured enemies to convert in order to save themselves from execution met with a slow tortured death instead of a quick painless one, because such attempts were viewed as insulting to Islam. And you weren't being racist: Islam has long had adherents who are black, brown, yellow, and white.

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Answer BFirst, it is to be emphasized that it is a basic principle in Islam that "no compulsion in religion". It is the role of Muslims to free the will of people and introduce to them Islam fundamentals and leave for them to chose the faith or religion they are convinced in. It is a very basic and important Islam rule. It is impossible in a country that when the ruler converts to Islam then his people convert automatically to Islam. Not as the case of the Byzantine empire, when the ruler converted to Christianity, then his people converted automatically to Christianity.

Second Islam spread so widely and quickly for the following reasons:

1. Islam is a true and logic God religion. It is the religion and mission of all God prophets to humanity since Adam, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Them All), that calls for worship Allah (God in English and same God in Christianity and Judaism) as the one and only one God with no partner, no son, no father, no companion, no associate, and no equivalence. Refer to question below on when Islam was started or made.
2. Islam calls for justice among all people irrelevant to their beliefs, colors, or social classes
3. Islam calls for practicing and following good morals. Refer to question below on Islamic morals as extracted from Quran.
4. Islam honors human free will of choice and thinking
5. Islam is against racism and discrimination based on color, culture, gender, or anything else except piety.
6. Quran, Muslims holy book, is authentic as true God words without single letter change
7. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is a true human model of good conduct. character, and leadership in all aspects of human life.
8. Quran scientific miracles had been validated only with current scientific discoveries and achievements. This proves that Quran is not a human authored book or text
9. The Islamic principles control all aspects of human life in a way that lead to both individual benefits and society benefits in a wonderful balance
10. Muslim traders who were traveling everywhere and demonstrating the good morals and principles of Islam
11. The deviations of former religions from the main call of all God prophets to worship God (Allah) as one and only one God with no partner, no son, no father, no companion, no associate, and no equivalence.

Some claim that Islam was spread by war or by sword. This is a false argument for many reasons. One of these reasons is that the Muslim country of the biggest population is Indonesia while Muslims never invaded Indonesia. The claim that Islam spread by war or by sword is a false claim and is a lie propagated by enemies of Islam. For more information on this refer to related questions below.

Answer 3

The followers of the Prophet obeyed God well, in the first century. They fought and were successful.

The peoples all around were under injustice and oppression. They welcomed the Muslim armies as liberators.

The people outside of the Middle East - in parts of Africa, India, Russia, China and Indonesia where there were no battles fought at all, accepted the message of Muhammad very quickly.

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Islam was spread so fast for many reasons. Most of important of them are:

1. Islam is a true and logic God religion. It is the religion and mission of all God prophets to humanity since Adam, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Them All), that calls for worship Allah (God in English) as the one and only one God with no partner, no son, no companion, no associate, and no equivalence.
2. Islam calls for justice among all people irrelevant to their beliefs, colors, or social classes
3. Islam calls for practicing good morals
4. Islam honors human free will of choice and thinking
5. Islam is against racism and discrimination based on color, culture, gender, or anything else except piety.
6. Quran, Muslims holy book, is authentic as true God words without single letter change
7. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is a true human model of good conduct. character, and leader in all aspects of human life.
8. Quran scientific miracles had been validated only with current scientific discoveries and achievements.
9. The Islamic principles control all aspects of human life in a way that lead to both individual benefits and society benefits in a wonderful balance
10. Muslim traders who were traveling every where and demonstrating the good morals and principles of Islam
11. The deviations of former religions from the main call of all God prophets to worship God (Allah) as one and only one God without a partner, son, father, partner, or companion.

Some claim that Islam was spread by war or by sword. This is a false argument for many reasons. One of these reasons is that the Muslim country of the biggest population is Indonesia while Muslims never invaded Indonesia. The claim that Islam spread by war or by sword is a false claim and is a lie propagated by enemies of Islam. For more information on this refer to related questions below.

Answer 4

Islam spread quickly because a man called Muhammed began preaching to Arab people somewhere after 610. He taught there was only one god, called Allah in Arabic. At first, his message wasnt welcomed widely. So he was forced to flee his home in Mecca. Muhammed settled in Medina to the north and soon, he had may thousands of followers. That is how it spread around quickly.

Answer 5

Answer 1

Islam spread rapidly because of its authenticity, logic, truthfulness, and calling for good morals. refer to questions below.

Islam spread through demonstration of Islam good values and morals.

Islam spread so rapidly because of its truthfulneess, logic, and its call to nonracism, nondiscrimnation, tolerance, and forgiveness. refer to related question below.

Answer 2 (Counterpoint of Answer 1)

If only that were true; but all the lessons of history and human nature argue vehemently against it.

In fact, without force of arms against many isolated populations which were comparatively undefended, Islam's progress across Africa and SE Asia and into Europe would have been far slower and far less extensive.

So it is warfare that adequately answers both the how and the why. All else is nice, but naive.

Answer 3

History shows that none of great wars had such effects in people's beliefs as that of Islam's. Today people think that Islam is a religion of fighting, war, killing and so on. But this has no fact. Some people wear Islamic clothes and say Allah-u Akbar (God is Great) while killing innocent people in order to show that Islam is a religion of terrorism. But this is not what Islam teaches. Killing an innocent is like killing all humanity according to Islam. Islam never accepts terrorism. Islam is AGAINST terrorism.

Here are some simple questions:

How many Muslims were killed in Iraq by Americans?

How many Muslims were killed in Afghanistan by Americans?

How many .... in Palestine by Israel?

Who cares?

Researches show that the number of Muslims killed by Christians (& Jews) in last 3 centuries is too great compared with the number of non-Muslims killed by Muslims throughout the History. But who cares about these numbers? Media is not in Muslims' hands. It is in the hand of enemies of Muslims. They show what they want. If you really want to understand Islam (also you will see the answer why it is so fast-spreading religion) read Al-Qur'an and the Hadtihs (Traditions and words and acts of Prophet Muhammad PBUH). Who acts in a different way than what Qur'an and Hadiths say, then know that that action is not done by Islam, but by the enemies of Islam in Islamic clothes...

These games are played throughout the history and many people started to see the truth behind the scene of these games, that is why they are accepting Islam. If you don't believe me, then try to learn it from Qur'an and the Hadiths and from real Muslims...

Because people are realizing it's the only true religion. Most people that convert find the relationship between God and themselves becomes more deeper and stronger. And no, Islam was not spread by sword!

Answer 4

Ok, first off, that's not the reason why it spread so rapidly. Many people were tired of Buddhism and Hinduism, which were two major religions at the time that Islam began to spread, and they joined Islam because it was easy for them to join. Since Buddhist conversions were limited to the elite, the mass of the population was open to Islam. Hinduism rejected some people that are known as "Untouchables" and they were sick of their way of life (we all know that Hinduism affects all aspects of life; that is, if you practice the religion) so they joined Islam. Also, Islam provided the Arabs with a sense of common cause and a way of releasing martial energies against neighboring opponents.

There are many answers to this question, but your answer isn't very reliable and is very biased.

And yes, it DID spread by the sword. "Abu-Bakr (the first caliph) used military force to reassert the authority of Muhammad's successors in the Muslim community."

Answer 5

Islam spread quickly due to a number of factors. It is notable that although there are a few occurrences of Muslims carrying out the "Convert or Die" scenario, this is not the most common reason for Islam's expansion both in terms of territory and belief.

1) Arabia - What's that?: Prior to Mohammed, Arabia had been seen as a cultural and political backwater barely worth notice and therefore Mohammed's consolidation of the Arab Tribes was not seriously considered by the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires. This lead to a very porous southern defense and miscalculation of the Islamic Armies.

2) Byzantine-Sassanian Wars: Since the Byzantines and Sassanians considered each other the only real civilizations in the region, they fought each other numerous times in the early 600s C.E. over control of what is today East Turkey and Iraq. These were intense religious wars (Christian vs. Zoroastrian) and greatly weakened both empires at just the wrong time.

3) Tribal Command Structure: Arab Tribes and warriors owed their loyalty to their Sheikhs and leaders without fault because the Sheikh provided each person with all of the amenities and protection necessary to live a full life. Whenever the Arabs went to war, the Sheikhs could count on the ability to muster their tribesmen as soldiers without issue.

4) Support of the Locals: Since the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Empire were engaged in religious zealotry, it stands to reason that they did not tolerate their religious minorities very well. The Muslims professed to (and did) treat minorities far better than either of these Empires. This led to religious minorities (especially Jews) from within the conquered territories helping Muslims to secure outposts and positions, freeing the Muslims to continue to spread the religion.

5) Citizenship by Conversion: The Islamic Empire was interesting in that being the leader or a person of import in the Empire was not contingent on ethnicity or place of birth as was the case of most prior empires. All a person had to do to gain power and prestige was to convert to Islam. This simple integration mechanism resulted in massive number of Persians, Berbers, and Turks converting to Islam. In fact, the furthest expansions of Islam (Spain, India, West China, South Russia, the Balkans) were all accomplished by non-Arabs (respectively Berbers, Persians/Mughals, Turkmen, Azeris, and Ottomans).

6) Warfare: The leaders charged with expanding the influence of Islam were thoughtful and diligent military leaders. Caliph 'Omar, who conquered much of the Levant, Egypt, Persia, and Iraq was well-known as a strategist and a fighter. It was this knowledge of warfare that allowed Muslim forces to expand the territory's influence.

7) Universality: Islam, as a religion, claims salvation for all people in all places, making the religion very attractive, especially to people born into low castes and bad economic positions.

8) Commerce: Islam, like most religions, spread also through peaceful means of commerce and education whereby non-Muslims learned of the faith and adopted as their own amidst business dealings with Muslims

As concerns the above discussion of "who kills more people", today, the vast majority of Muslim deaths are perpetrated by other Muslims, not by people of other religions or of the "Western Powers". The governments of Iran and Pakistan have killed numerous civilians of their own. The Iran-Iraq War, the Lebanese Civil War (if you do not count Israeli-caused fatalities), and numerous other wars between or within Muslim countries have claimed innumerable Muslim lives. This is no media conspiracy, these are statistics.

Answer 6

The teachings of Islam are very simple and practicable. Justice, peaceful coexistence, tolerance, equality of all human beings, safety of life, property, honor, truth, service to mankind, etc are the basic principles of Islam which appeal to the people and they accept Islam.

Answer 7

Islam spread quickly due to a number of factors. It is notable that although there are a few occurrences of Muslims carrying out the "Convert or Die" scenario, this is not the most common reason for Islam's expansion in terms of belief.

1) Expansion of Islamic States: As the Islamic Empire expanded, more and more people came into contact with Islam and would be subject to the coercive power of Islamic States vis-a-vis the religion (as will be discussed later). The leaders charged with expanding the influence of Islam were thoughtful and diligent military leaders. Caliph 'Omar, who conquered much of the Levant, Egypt, Persia, and Iraq was well-known as a strategist and a fighter. It was this knowledge of warfare that allowed Muslim forces to expand the territory's influence.

2) Coercion of Religion: While forcible conversion was rare, Islamic States have historically created a set of benefits that only Muslims could partake, making a choice to be Muslim tied to choices about economic viability (which professions you could work - especially in government) or tied to choices of social standing. These would strongly weight the choice and produce a steady stream of converts by their very nature. This also prevents widespread insurrection which did occur in Europe when forcible conversions took place.

3) Citizenship by Conversion: The Islamic Empire was interesting in that being the leader or a person of import in the Empire was not contingent on ethnicity or place of birth as was the case of most prior empires. All a person had to do to gain power and prestige was to convert to Islam. This simple integration mechanism resulted in massive number of Persians, Berbers, and Turks converting to Islam. In fact, the furthest expansions of Islam (Spain, India, West China, South Russia, the Balkans) were all accomplished by non-Arabs (respectively Berbers, Persians/Mughals, Turkmen, Azeris, and Ottomans).

4) Banning of Apostasy: Apostasy (the conversion of out Islam to another faith or to Atheism) is an offense punishable by death. Therefore, a choice made by one person binds the hands of all of his descendants. Most religions have to worry about people leaving the faith as well, but Islam cleverly avoids this problem. No Muslim-majority country has established legislation protecting Apostates.

5) Universality: Islam, as a religion, claims salvation for all people in all places, making the religion very attractive, especially to people born into low castes and bad economic positions.

6) Commerce: Islam, like most religions, spread also through peaceful means of commerce and education whereby non-Muslims learned of the faith and adopted as their own amidst business dealings with Muslims. This happened especially in maritime cities like Zanzibar or Aceh whose primary source of wealth was trading with Muslims.

Answer 8

Islam spread quickly due to a number of factors. It is notable that although there are a few occurrences of Muslims carrying out the "Convert or Die" scenario, this is not the most common reason for Islam's expansion both in terms of territory and belief. Additionally, Muslims often cite the veracity of Islam as a factor in Islam's spread, but as the veracity of Islam is not proved (and many other faiths with views that contradict Islam have spread quite rapidly as well), this is not a useful reason to cite.

As for the historical reasons:

1) Arabia - What's that?: Prior to Mohammed, Arabia had been seen as a cultural and political backwater barely worth notice and therefore Mohammed's consolidation of the Arab Tribes was not seriously considered by the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires. This lead to a very porous southern defense and miscalculation of the Islamic Armies.

2) Byzantine-Sassanian Wars: Since the Byzantines and Sassanians considered each other the only real civilizations in the region, they fought each other numerous times in the early 600s C.E. over control of what is today East Turkey and Iraq. These were intense religious wars (Christian vs. Zoroastrian) and greatly weakened both empires at just the wrong time.

3) Tribal Command Structure: Arab Tribes and warriors owed their loyalty to their Sheikhs and leaders without fault because the Sheikh provided each person with all of the amenities and protection necessary to live a full life. Whenever the Arabs went to war, the Sheikhs could count on the ability to muster their tribesmen as soldiers without issue.

4) Support of the Locals: Since the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Empire were engaged in religious zealotry, it stands to reason that they did not tolerate their religious minorities very well. The Muslims professed to (and did) treat minorities far better than either of these Empires. This led to religious minorities (especially Jews) from within the conquered territories helping Muslims to secure outposts and positions, freeing the Muslims to continue to spread the religion.

5) Citizenship by Conversion: The Islamic Empire was interesting in that being the leader or a person of import in the Empire was not contingent on ethnicity or place of birth as was the case of most prior empires. All a person had to do to gain power and prestige was to convert to Islam. This simple integration mechanism resulted in massive number of Persians, Berbers, and Turks converting to Islam. In fact, the furthest expansions of Islam (Spain, India, West China, South Russia, the Balkans) were all accomplished by non-Arabs (respectively Berbers, Persians/Mughals, Turkmen, Azeris, and Ottomans).

6) Warfare: The leaders charged with expanding the influence of Islam were thoughtful and diligent military leaders. Caliph 'Omar, who conquered much of the Levant, Egypt, Persia, and Iraq was well-known as a strategist and a fighter. It was this knowledge of warfare that allowed Muslim forces to expand the territory's influence.

7) Universality: Islam, as a religion, claims salvation for all people in all places, making the religion very attractive, especially to people born into low castes and bad economic positions.

8) Commerce: Islam, like most religions, spread also through peaceful means of commerce and education whereby non-Muslims learned of the faith and adopted as their own amidst business dealings with Muslims. This happened especially in maritime cities like Zanzibar or Aceh whose primary source of wealth was trading with Muslims.

Answer 9

Islam spread quickly due to a number of factors. It is notable that although there are a few occurrences of Muslims carrying out the "Convert or Die" scenario, this is not the most common reason for Islam's expansion both in terms of territory and belief.

1) Arabia - What's that?: Prior to Muhammad, Arabia had been seen as a cultural and political backwater barely worth notice and therefore Muhammad's consolidation of the Arab Tribes was not seriously considered by the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires. This lead to a very porous southern defense and miscalculation of the Islamic Armies.

2) Byzantine-Sassanian Wars: Since the Byzantines and Sassanians considered each other the only real civilizations in the region, they fought each other numerous times in the early 600s C.E. over control of what is today East Turkey and Iraq. These were intense religious wars (Christian vs. Zoroastrian) and greatly weakened both empires at just the wrong time.

3) Tribal Command Structure: Arab Tribes and warriors owed their loyalty to their Sheikhs and leaders without fault because the Sheikh provided each person with all of the amenities and protection necessary to live a full life. Whenever the Arabs went to war, the Sheikhs could count on the ability to muster their tribesmen as soldiers without issue.

4) Support of the Locals: Since the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Empire were engaged in religious zealotry, it stands to reason that they did not tolerate their religious minorities very well. The Muslims professed to (and did) treat minorities far better than either of these Empires. This led to religious minorities (especially Jews) from within the conquered territories helping Muslims to secure outposts and positions, freeing the Muslims to continue to spread the religion.

5) Citizenship by Conversion: The Islamic Empire was interesting in that being the leader or a person of import in the Empire was not contingent on ethnicity or place of birth as was the case of most prior empires. All a person had to do to gain power and prestige was to convert to Islam. This simple integration mechanism resulted in massive number of Persians, Berbers, and Turks converting to Islam. In fact, the furthest expansions of Islam (Spain, India, West China, South Russia, the Balkans) were all accomplished by non-Arabs (respectively Berbers, Persians/Mughals, Turkmen, Azeris, and Ottomans).

6) Warfare: The leaders charged with expanding the influence of Islam were thoughtful and diligent military leaders. Caliph 'Omar, who conquered much of the Levant, Egypt, Persia, and Iraq was well-known as a strategist and a fighter. It was this knowledge of warfare that allowed Muslim forces to expand the territory's influence.

7) Universality: Islam, as a religion, claims salvation for all people in all places, making the religion very attractive, especially to people born into low castes and bad economic positions.

8) Commerce: Islam, like most religions, spread also through peaceful means of commerce and education whereby non-Muslims learned of the faith and adopted as their own amidst business dealings with Muslims. This happened especially in maritime cities like Zanzibar or Aceh whose primary source of wealth was trading with Muslims.