In the early period of Islam, what made them advance was this very spirit of yearning for martyrdom. In a matter of half a century, they conquered almost all the populous places of the world, the civilized world of the time. Quantitatively, they were a just number of Hijazis. But they neither knew about the war techniques in its modern sense that Rome and Iran would know, nor did they have the implements of warfare. As far as implements are concerned, they had none; i. e., every few of them had one camel; and every few of them had one sword, which they had tied to a rope made of raffia. But there, the spirit was a great divine one. It was such a spirit that when, in one of the battles, an adversary shoved the lance in one's belly, and the recipient realized that he was about to die, he pushed himself while he had the lance in him and shoved a lance into that adversary's belly and killed him while he himself also died! That was the kind of morale and that was the kind of spirit that prevailed.
Sahifeh, vol.9, Page: 370
Speech, September 4, 1979