| | | Interesting that many historians proclaim there were nefarious motives behind the expansion of Western society. The words "colonization" and "nation building" are the words of choice, and have come to mean something contemptible. By the same token, these historians rarely if ever attach the same significance to the act of expanding the Nation of Islam.
From the start, the jihadi was guaranteed one of two rewards for his war efforts: martyrdom if he dies, plunder if he lives. The one was an eternal, the other a temporal reward -- a win-win situation that, at least according to early Christian and Muslim chroniclers, played a major role in the success of the Muslim conquests. In other words, that the sources indicate that the Muslims were booty-hungry does not in the least negate the fact that, as with all of the initial Muslim conquests, starting with Prophet Muhammad at the Battle of Badr, territorial conquests and the acquisition of booty went hand-in-hand and were the natural culmination of the jihad. |
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