ing forces was established and Mohammed was officially recognized by his enemies as a reigning prince. Mohammed seems thereupon to have suffered from an attack of the wildest conceit. He dispatched letters to all the great princes, emperors and kings of Western Asia, ordering them to embrace Islam (as his religion was now called by the people) or take the consequences! While Mohammed himself never succeeded in carrying his religion beyond the present borders of Arabia, his successors compelled all the princes and emperors to whom he had written, to acknowledge the supremacy of Islam, by force of arms!
In the month of March, 632, Mohammed completed his last pilgrimage to Mecca, and preached to some 40,000 people assembled around the base of Arafat. He died three months later, just after coming out of the Mosque at Medina, aged 61 years and two months.
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ISLAM
Islam—signifying resignation (to the will of God)—is one of the simplest religions in the world. It can be encompassed in a few paragraphs:
1. There is but one GOD—and Mohammed is his ambassador, or prophet.
2. Paradise is reserved to those who believe the above statement.
3. Hell is for all those who refuse to believe it.
