The Current Iran vs America/Israel War Through the Lens of Islam and History - By Umar Ardo, Ph.D

Great conflicts are rarely just about territory, weapons or diplomacy. They are often struggles over deeper questions: Who holds moral authority? Who carries the responsibility of defending a civilization? And what happens when those entrusted with that responsibility abandon it?

2. Across history, moments of geopolitical confrontation have frequently exposed deeper moral and civilizational shifts. The present conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States may be one such moment; one that forces the Muslim world to confront uncomfortable questions about leadership, autonomy and responsibility! In the Islamic worldview, such historical transformations are not accidental. They are tied to a moral law as articulated with remarkable clarity in the Holy Qur’an 47:38:

“And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people; then they will not be like you.”

3. Classical Islamic tradition records that when this verse was discussed, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) placed his hand upon the shoulder of a Persian companion, Salman al-Farisi, and said that even if faith were as distant as the Pleiades, men from his people would attain it. The narration appears in works such as Sahih al-Bukhari and was elaborated upon by major commentators including Ibn Kathir, Al-Tabari and Al-Qurtubi. The implication was profound. The guardianship of Islam was never meant to belong permanently to any single people. If the early Arab custodians of the faith became negligent in defending justice and the dignity of the Muslim community, others could rise to assume that responsibility. The Qur’anic principle is therefore one of moral succession rather than ethnic privilege. Throughout the fourteen centuries of Islamic history, this pattern has appeared repeatedly. Leadership within the Muslim world has shifted across different peoples - Arabs, Persians, Turks and Central Asians - whenever historical circumstances demanded renewal. 

4. ⁠Viewed through this historical and theological lens, the current confrontation involving Iran, Israel and the United States may be seen not merely as a geopolitical rivalry but as part of a longer narrative about civilizational responsibility. For many academics across the Muslim world, the confrontation evokes echoes of the Crusades. In 1095, Pope Urban II called upon European Christians at the Council of Clermont to reclaim Jerusalem and surrounding territories of the Middle East from Muslim rule. What followed were centuries of campaigns that profoundly reshaped relations between Europe and the Islamic world.

5. ⁠The Muslim response eventually emerged under leaders such as Saladin, whose unification of fragmented Muslim forces culminated in the recapture of Jerusalem in 1187. That moment symbolized the capacity of Islamic civilization to reorganize itself when confronted by existential threats. Today, some Muslim thinkers see symbolic parallels between that historical moment and the contemporary alignment of Western powers with Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran. With many Arab governments closely integrated into Western security systems, Iran increasingly turns out as the principal frontier of resistance.

6. ⁠Historically, Persian lands have often occupied such frontier positions during moments of crisis for Islamic civilization. During the Crusades, although the principal battlefields lay in the Levant, Persia provided the intellectual foundations of the Islamic response. Scholars such as Al-Ghazali revitalized Islamic theology and reinforced the legitimacy of Muslim political authority. Persian administrators also strengthened the institutions of the Seljuk Empire, one of the most powerful states resisting Crusader expansion. Persia also hosted resilient defensive networks such as the Nizari Ismaili strongholds centered on Alamut Castle, founded by Hassan-i Sabbah. 

7. ⁠An even greater catastrophe came with the Mongol invasions led by Genghis Khan and later Hulagu Khan. The devastation across Persia and Central Asia was immense, collapsing many Islamic political institutions. Yet within decades the Mongol rulers of the Ilkhanate embraced Islam. When Ghazan Khan converted in 1295, the conquerors themselves became absorbed into the civilization they had once nearly destroyed. 

8. ⁠Persia again reshaped the Muslim world through the rise of the Safavid Empire under Shah Ismail I, which unified Iranian territories and helped define the geopolitical identity of modern Iran. In the contemporary era, Iran underwent another profound transformation through the Iranian Revolution, replacing a Western-aligned monarchy with a revolutionary state that framed its political mission in Islamic and anti-imperialist terms.

9. ⁠For some historians and political thinkers, the present alignment - Arab monarchies closely allied with Western powers while Iran confronts them - inevitably recalls the symbolism associated with Salman al-Farisi: that leadership in defending Islamic autonomy may pass to those willing to bear its burdens. Yet the Qur’anic principle remains universal. Islam grants permanent authority to no nation or dynasty. Leadership belongs only to those who uphold justice, courage and moral responsibility. 

10. ⁠This reality raises a difficult question across the Muslim world. For decades, many of the wealthiest Muslim states, particularly oil-rich Arab monarchies, have embedded their security structures within Western geopolitical systems. Their military doctrines, intelligence networks and strategic calculations are deeply intertwined with external powers. In doing so, they have often traded political autonomy for regime security. If those possessing the greatest wealth and strategic influence relinquish the responsibility of defending collective independence, history suggests that others will inevitably attempt to fill that vacuum.

11. ⁠The Qur’anic warning in 47:38 speaks precisely to such moments. When communities turn away from their responsibilities, new actors emerge to reshape the historical landscape. Islamic history illustrates this pattern clearly. After the early Arab empires, intellectual and political leadership flourished among Persians, Turks and Central Asians. Scholars such as Imam Al-Bukhari and Al-Ghazali preserved and expanded the intellectual heritage of Islam across different cultures. The deeper significance of the current confrontation therefore lies not only in its military dimension but in the civilizational debate it has provoked within the Muslim world.

12. ⁠Who will defend the political independence of Muslim societies? Who will resist external domination? And which communities will embody the moral ideals that Islamic civilization represents? These questions will not be settled by military exchanges alone. They will be answered by the long judgment of history. For the Qur’an reminds believers of a truth that transcends every empire and every alliance: no people possess permanent guardianship over truth. When some turn away, others rise.

13. And history - relentless and unsentimental - continues to decide who those others will be. History teaches a relentless lesson. Civilizations do not fall only because of their enemies; they fall when those entrusted with their defense grow comfortable with dependence and silence. The warning of the Holy Qur’an remains as relevant today as it was fourteen centuries ago: when some turn away from their responsibilities, others inevitably rise to carry them. The real truth confronting the Muslim world today is that a new actor has emerged, who possesses the courage, independence and moral conviction to stand when others choose to kneel. And, undoubtedly, this new actor for the Muslim World is Iran.

Image: Umar Ardo, Ph.D