and the Islamic call soared, rising to the very summit of exaltation. Its root became unshakeable while its branches reached the sky; all other religions shrank before it, and the nations (1) fell prostrate beneath it, yielding in humility and submission. A herald cried out with its emblem across the heavens between the two horizons: “I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger,” raising the two testimonies aloft until Satan’s summons was annulled, (2) idol-worship melted away, fire-worship vanished, (3) the Trinitarians—worshippers of the cross—were brought low, and the wrath-stricken nation was scattered through the earth like a mirage dispersing over the plains.

Thus the word of Islam became supreme; within the hearts of all creatures it gained the highest ideal. Its proofs and arguments stood victorious over every other community, in this world and the next, and its rank in loftiness and honour (4) reached the furthest pinnacle. For its dominion and for His Chosen One, Allah raised up helpers and supporters (5) who unfurled his banners and standards, safeguarded its limits and rulings from alteration, and conveyed—just as those before them had done—its lawful and unlawful precepts to their peers. They venerated its rites, taught its laws, and strove against its enemies with evidence and clarification, until it grew thick and stood upright upon its stalks, delighting the cultivators while vexing the disbelievers.

Its structure—founded upon piety before Allah and His good pleasure—was lifted high, for it was a building (6)