“In only 23 years, the Prophet Muḥammad managed to bring mankind from darkness to light and to set up a fully-fledged Ummah (state) based on knowledge, righteousness, dignity, and humanity,” said the deputy grand imām of al-Azhar, Dr. Muḥammad al-Ḍūwaynī. “This state has spread throughout the world through the good manners and rationale that marked Islam, and not through the blade of the sword, as some claim,” Ḍūwaynī stated during a celebrative eve on the occasion of the al-Mawlid al-Nabawī (the Prophet Muḥammad’s Birthday) anniversary.