Islam and the Kuran

The Islamic Empire undertook powerful and meaningful movements across North Africa and into Hispania, while being able to rapidly expand their hold on territory and the progressive installment of Islam in these territories. During the early eighth century the Islamic Caliphate made several successful invasions into Europe, but could not make any meaningful impositions on the European people and European society. The failures of Islamic leadership to cultivate and expand the Islamic religion in Europe led to a Christian Europe, and not an Islamic one. The leaders, following the rise of the Islamic Empire in the fourth century, failed to superimpose Islamic, culture, beliefs, traditions, politics and economic structures into European territories because of inconsistent political and military campaigns.

The Islamic Empire’s involvement in the secular world was a hindrance to the influence of Islam. Removing religion from the State and its advancements was an important element to the governing of the Islamic Empire. The need for political order legitimized secular governance in the Islamic Empire, allowing for political bodies to exist without intrinsic religious characteristics. However, the government was officially loyal to Islam and committed to its defense.1 Muhammad drafted the Constitution of Medina; this would act as a basis for formal agreement between the distinct religious factions living in tribes throughout the Islamic Empire. For the Islamic Empire the Constitution was akin to that of Constantine’s Edict of Milan, which was established in 313 CE. Its purpose was to “determine the relations between the Muslims and the Jews of Medina within the framework of a new kind of unity.”2 Muhammad sought to bring an end to the fighting and violence within the Islamic Empire by attempting to make all religious sects equal under the law and, most importantly, under God. Islamic governance and the Constitution of Medina effectively separated religion from