In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire

by Tom Holland

The result was one yet additional miracle: the further in time from the Prophet a biographer, the more extensive his biography was likely to be.

“Islam was born, not amid the mystery which cradles the origins of other religions, but rather in the full light of history.”

The souls of those who died for Christ, ascending from the reek and shambles of the killing ground, were assured of eternal life. Nor was that the limit of their rewards—for the more spectacular their sufferings, so the more did they draw attention to the glory of Christ and His earthly Church. Each one perished as a “witness”—martyr, in Greek.