“..prove itself without the presence of any infidel it can exploit to shore it up and give it meaning and purpose.”
Islam’s founder never intended to give it meaning and purpose.
Because he knew Islam was un-inspired and would wither away if he could not exploit the talents and knowledge of those he conquered and attribute their product to Islam. Even today we justify the existence of this belief which should have been tossed on the dung heap of history because we mistakenly believe it had better days. And by golly, didn’t they invent the ZERO? (Not really.)