—a narrow understanding. Thus, they brought to the region a weak, patchwork form of Islam, each patch at odds with the next, the two conflicting and contradicting one another. They sometimes even called aspects of their customs and traditions Islam when they were not Islam at all. Yet none of this arose from ill intent; rather, it arose from poor understanding and limited knowledge. They lacked awareness and had crossed the sea for trade. When they entered the region, they found themselves the best the field had to offer—as the expression goes—and so began calling people to Islam. They were like men gathering firewood in the dark, picking up whatever came to hand and passing it on to the continent’s inhabitants. They knew that an African living in those times would not reject what an Arab brought him, nor would he even question him or ask whether what he taught or dictated was correct. He believed that an Arab would only say, present in the name of religion, or spread among people what the unlettered Arab Prophet had brought. Such was the African’s belief concerning the Arab, especially if the Arab was a preacher of Islam: he credited him with everything short of infallibility. I believe, with something approaching certainty, that non-Arabs on every continent share this exaggerated belief in, and esteem for, Arabs, as we observed during some of our visits to places outside Africa.

On the strength of this exaggerated belief and esteem, the region’s inhabitants accepted everything the traders brought in the name of religion, without scrutiny or discussion.

Because the traders lacked insight, they brought everything to the region in the name of Islam; and because the inhabitants thought well of them, they accepted everything from them. Islam thus spread across the continent in a weak, tainted, patchwork form, as we have already said. This was all they had to offer, and “one cannot give what one does not possess.”