Something has been floating around in the back of my mind which I thought I would toss out. Did the early Arab / Muslim expansion, say 620-720ce ever attack and win against an internally strong state? Certainly the Byzantines were in major problems in the areas that the Arabs overran and, I believe although I'm not sure, that the Persians were in a longish standing civil war as well.

So if the foundational narrative of Islam is centered around only attacking areas with weak states, wouldn't that imply that there is a propensity for their modern day wannabes, AQ in particular, to attempt to reconstruct a similar situation in the present?