41. How was the Prophet Muhammad able to influence so many people to accept Islam? What did he want to achieve by promoting it?

The Prophet Muhammad had sent his messengers to heads of tribes, states and kingdoms inviting them to the message of Islam. The heads of states in return sent their delegations and scholars to the Prophet to confirm if his claim of being a prophet sent by God was correct. The delegations used to ask him questions which would seek to confirm the veracity of Islam. For this reason, several verses in the Quran regarding Jesus and Moses were revealed during this time. It was these peaceful and intellectual means that led to the spread of the message of Islam.

This was a phenomenon of that age. It was an age where if a king or tribal chief adopted a religion, it was cascaded to the entire population in that area. If the head of the tribe accepted Muhammad as a prophet, then everyone in his tribe would embrace Islam as per tradition. Just as, when Constantinople had adopted Christianity, it had led to a mass conversion of all his subjects to Christianity.

In the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the primitive society was a tribal society and the chief of the community was the head for the whole of the community. But this age has now come to an end and this phenomenon shall not repeat itself.

It is common that every truthful person, who has attained realization, wants to spread the truth to others. The truth is a motivating spirit and anyone who believes in it shall leave no stone unturned to convey it to people around him. For example, Swami Vivekananda reached the US without any wherewithal and despite great difficulty only so as to transmit the message he believed in.