After the death of An-Najaashi and before the spread of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, a spell was experienced in Africa, a spell that wasn’t short lived, but eventually the propagation of Islam got cold due to lack of leadership (coordination) and because of the expiration of the authority that was sponsoring the Dawah and the callers, with the death of An-Najaashi —Allaah have mercy on him—.
When Islam extended its authority to greater portion of the world and the Arabs entered the religion of Allaah in multitude, and during the reign of the third caliph, precisely Uthmaan bin Al-‘Afaan —Allaah be pleased with him—, Islamic propagation began to spread its wings in African anew, at a time when the troops of Islam advanced over Northern Africa till they conquered Tūnis (Tunisia) during the battle popularly known as; Gazwatul ‘Abaadilah as-Sab'ah [(The battle of seven Abdullahs, also called Ma'arakah As-Subaytilah (a town in Tunisia)]. Since seven Companions participated in it and the names of each and everyone of them was Abdullah. They are:
Abdullah ibn Sa’ad ibn Abee Sarh
Abdullah ibn Zubayr
Abdullah ibn Umar
Abdullah ibn Abass
Abdullah ibn Ja'far
Abdullah ibn ibn Mas'uud
And
Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn Al-'Aas
Afterwards when Muawiyyah —Allah be pleased with him— came to power, the Islamic army continued its march towards Northern Africa till they completely conquered it and Islam entered there, and afterwards the West of the continent followed, and carried into it the pure creed of Tawheed (Monotheism), a creed free from all blemishes of idolatry.
It is clear from what has preceded that the propagators of Islam entered into Africa sometimes through the channel of peaceful parley and then invited people to Islam with their attitude and character just as they were constrained sometimes to bearing of swords and might as we have seen with Northern Africa, regardless of whether through this or that, we can name this era; The first epoch of the activities of Islam in Africa and it is the period in which it entered into it at different disconnected stages — just as we have seen.
