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    Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
    Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
    Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
    Audiobook6 hours

    Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time

    Written by Karen Armstrong

    Narrated by Karen Armstrong

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    About this audiobook

    The man who inspired the world's fastest-growing religion

    Muhammad presents a fascinating portrait of the founder of a religion that continues to change the course of world history. Muhammad’s story is more relevant than ever because it offers crucial insight into the true origins of an
    increasingly radicalized Islam. Countering those who dismiss Islam as fanatical and violent, Armstrong offers a clear, accessible, and balanced portrait of the central figure of one of the world’s great religions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 28, 2008
    ISBN9781436123884
    Author

    Karen Armstrong

    Karen Armstrong was born in Worcestershire. After becoming a nun in the 1960s, she left her order and lectured in literature at London University before becoming a full time writer, broadcaster and international adviser on religious and political affairs. She has addressed US Congress, the UN and Canadian parliament on Islam and fundamentalism. Among her other books is the bestselling ‘History of God’.

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    Reviews for Muhammad

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      I converted to Islam after reading this book I'm in love with prophet Muhammad

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This book is helpful in that it epitomizes the old leftist/woke/PC perspective on Mohammed’s historicity. But that perspective has been eviscerated by Tom Holland’s _In the Shadow of the Sword_ (2012) and the works cited in it. Also, she repeatedly mispronounces the name of the key Arab historian, ابن إسحق. It’s pronounced Ibn Iss-Haq (cognate of the Hebrew יצחק, ie Isaac)—not Ibn Ishak (there is no ش, ie no English “sh” sound).
    • 5/5
      I recommande this book as a carefully written biography showing the strugle of the prophet Muhammad before and after the start of his mission and how the journy he took was distened to change the course of history and to influence heavely the difinition of our most important values which we live by in our current days.

      From social justic to gender equality. This book present the ideas which the prophet Muhammad called for during his lifetime and how, like other prophet, he was ahead of his time. She present how the resistance to the ideal he had presented came from his companions who failed sometimes to get out of their cultural and social upbringings.

      However, there are many points and formulations in the book which I found personal points of view of the writer and not reflecting any historical facts but personal explinations of contradictions or absence of evidences in the historical sources.
    • 3/5
      A fine, not great, short biography of Muhammad. The research is better than the prose and the prose moves along fine. A few tricky moments where Armstrong seems to be suggesting a knowledge of the divine, but only a few. An acceptable contribution to the Eminent Lives.
    • 5/5
      In 1991, Karen published a biography of Muhammed, the founder of Islam. In 2006, she published this updated biography, hoping to focus more on his life and teachings that contradict the image of Muslim extremism, so that we Americans could put September 11 behind us and recognize Islam as a religion of peace. I haven’t read the first book, but I definitely enjoyed the second.This is not the story of Islam or an interpretation of its scriptures. It is just a sympathetic biography of its founder. While Karen gives us both the dirt and the glory, she manages to put Mohammed’s story in its societal setting so that we can grasp his original teachings and decisions.Mohammed’s laws, for example, were designed for a small, struggling community, never for the vast empire that succeeded him. His jihad, which does not mean “holy war” but which means “struggle,” was a tireless campaign against greed, injustice, and arrogance.Arabs in Mohammed’s time did not feel it was necessary to convert to Judaism or Christianity, because they believed that they were already members of the Abrahamic family. In fact, the idea of conversion from one faith to another was alien. Pluralism was the more natural belief, and Muhammed embraced pluralism. A verse often quoted to prove Islamic exclusive beliefs actually means just the opposite:“For if one goes in search of a religion other than islam unto God, it will never be accepted from him, and in the life to come, he shall be among the lost.”Of course, Muhammed did not call his religion “islam”; the word simply meant self-surrender, and had nothing to do with a particular denomination or belief. In its original context, the teaching meant just the opposite of exclusivism. Muhammed hated sectarian quarrels, and was offended by the idea of a “chosen people.”But Muhammed did believe reform was necessary. He despised the suppression of Arab women, and he could not condone any caste which separated those with money from those without. He personally gave a large percentage of his earnings to the poor, and expected the same selflessness from his little band of followers. All such kindnesses would be rewarded in paradise, he promised.Does that mean the stories of Muhammed’s wars and raiding expeditions are rumors? No, and here Karen shows a little too much sympathy, as she explains the cultural expectations. A clan could hardly support itself without raiding, she explains! Stories of Muhammed’s harem are juicy as well. Nevertheless, this appears to be an honest portrait of a complex man who tried mightily to reform his little area of the world for the better. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Not nearly as engaging or well-written as her earlier biography of the prophet.
    • 2/5
      Having recently started the month of Ramadan ( Arabic: رمضان) I wanted to familiarize myself with what non-Muslim authors and scholars were saying about Muslims, the Prophet Muhammad صلي الله عليه وسلم and Islam in general. So with this topic in mind I picked up Karen Armstrong's book "Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time".
      So, to begin:
      NOTE: All of Ms. Armstrong's direct quotes will be in quotation marks ("). My sarcastic or emphasized comments (To find which is which try to understand the context) will be in single quotes (').
      First I applaud Ms. Armstrong for attempting to portray the Prophet صلي الله عليه وسلم in a more human light. This is something the West (yes I am part of that 'West') seems to need to understand history. A pull-at-the-heartstrings story. However in doing this Ms. Armstrong takes away what it means for the Messenger to be a Messenger. That reverence that his followers felt, the honor that was given to him. At times in Ms. Armstrong's quest to provide a more "accessible account"1 the love and respect his companions (Arabic: صحاﺑﺔ) showed him becomes at best hard to see for the informed and at worst implying that at times they were almost going to overthrow him in a rebellion of sorts. This is one of the greatest complaints I have against this book.

      Second Ms. Armstrong uses very few sources, chief among them a certain Muhammad ibn Is'haq. Now to be fair she does use other books and works to make her point, but I felt that while reading the book she rarely (if ever) attempted to bring an opposing opinion and disprove it. Again not really that big a deal, yet it still brought my estimate of her book down.

      Third, and I would say most important factor in my irritation, is that she never uses the original Arabic for the Qur'an. It is always a translation. Now most of you would be correct, but as even Ms. Armstrong says in her book: "It is difficult for a non-Arabic to appreciate the beauty of the Qur'an, because this is rarely conveyed in translation."2
      This also applies to other uses of transliteration such as when Ms. Armstrong talks about the Bani Qaynuqa'3 (Arabic : بني قينقاع) which both looks and sounds ridiculous. To the average person reading this book the Arabic would be useless, and to some even irritating and distracting (which is not really an excuse; that's what glossaries and indexes are for).

      In conclusion I would most certainly never use this book to introduce a person to either Islam or the Prophet Muhammad صلي الله عليه وسلم , but as a tertiary source for someone researching him.

      Quotes:
      1: Page 6, line 14 of paragraph 3
      2: Page 46, line 5 of paragraph 2
      3: Page 91, line 11 of paragraph 1
      Note: The paragraph starts from the top of the page regardless if it is just one word from the previous page or not.
    • 5/5
      For a high-school or above class in Islamic studies or comparative religions, or world history, this book is a very good introduction to the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and the beginnings of Islam. It could be assigned as summer reading, over the semester reading, or a book-report project. Although not actually written by a Muslim, it offers an accurate portrayal of the Prophet and is easy to read and accessible to a Western audience. It offers a glossary of unfamiliar terms in the back, as well as several pages of notes on the author's research.
    • 4/5
      If you'd like to get to the root of Muhammad, then Karen's book is the perfect introduction. She smoothly separates the religious from the secular as well as his economic from political strife in Mecca and Medina. She deftly brings in the Quran where the Surahs intersect with his life transitions. It was eye opening to see how inclusive and revolutionary Islam was when Muhammad was alive. He would be labeled today a radical feminist. It is also saddening how after the leader dies the spiritual movement assumes the role of religious power and control limiting the blessedness of what could be so much more.
    • 3/5
      I listened to the audio version of this, read by the author. Once you get past her very peculiar British accent and her pronunciation of some common words in ways I have never before heard (I'm not saying she's wrong mind you -- but she's definitely in the minority), this book provides a decent, brief overview of Muhammad and the founding and growth of Islam to the time of his death. Of course, the big problem with books about people having revelations from god is that Muhammad either has to be insane and hearing voices in his head or he's making the whole thing up. Nevertheless, he acquires some devoted followers and a lot of wives (I lost track toward the end; it seemed like he was marrying another one every few minutes), and through a great deal of cleverness and well-timed boldness, he turns the tide against the polytheists in Mecca and sets the stage for Islam to emerge as the religion of the vast majority of Arabs. Armstrong goes to great lengths to stress the connections Muhammad acknowledged to the Christian and Jewish religions and his tolerance of people of those monotheistic faiths, who he felt were really worshiping the same god he was, just in their own way.So the first bottom line is that in the ranks of prophets over the ages, Muhammad comes across as a fairly tolerant, even non-fanatical type. The real bottom line, however, not addressed by the book is that any religion must in the end be judged by what its followers do. Armstrong doesn't really address the split in Islam after Muhammad's death and the ongoing war between different sects, which goes against Muhammad's teaching that Muslims shouldn't war with other Muslims. Or the teaching of hatred by a small minority of Muslim clerics that has caused so much pain and suffering for so many. These are just facts, not an anti-Muslim rant. Perhaps it's just Islam's turn to be the dangerous religion. The Catholic priesthood is too busy molesting children to be much competition.
    • 3/5
      Muhammad presents a fascinating portrait of the founder of a religion that continues to grow at a very fast speed in spite of all obstacles’ like the terrorists” western terminology” attached to anything which has been acted by minority of Muslim, and so on, I can forecast with full confidence that the hallow western world will returning to Islam not for the love of Islam but for refuge comfort purity contentedness and escape from there emptiness and shallowness materialistic existence thing what have you done today, walk up have shower, breakfast and if you lucky and have a job then you will drive to work 8-9 hours at work, meat the lads for a pint, Home tired read to watch TV then time to bed all you have done is all materialist activity and physical activity BUT nothing for your important part of been on earth your sprit your soul did you remember God when you have your breakfast or at work or what you have done is just robotic cross yourself when passing by church ) Then Islam will be the Only Guiding way to the inhabitant of the universeJust a note to say Mohamed speaks not, sees not only what has been revealed to him, if you can imagine he was a vehicle which received the divine order from Almighty God through the arc angel Gabriel
    • 2/5
      This book is both an easily readable story of the life of Muhammad, told in generous and sympathetic terms, and also a layman's introduction to the core teachings of the Muslim religion, since both topics are in fact inseparable. The revelations to Muhammad, which are collected as the true and holy word of God in the Qur'an, came to Muhammad piecemeal during the course of his adult life and in specifically relevant contexts and circumstances that Ms. Armstrong vividly describes.It was written by Karen Armstrong specifically to offset what she calls Western "bigotry" toward Islam, which she says has viewed the religion as warlike ever since the Crusades, and has vilified the Prophet himself in highly uncomplimentary terms. She is helped considerably in her purpose by the deliberately restricted focus of her attention. The scope of the book is limited to the life and times of the Prophet, and ends with his death. It is not a history of Islam. The further developments in history, such as Islam's military conquests and growth to empire after Muhammad's death, not to mention the violence and hostility which dominate our headlines today will have to be found elsewhere, in other conflicting books and discussions.Instead, the endorsements on the back cover describe the book fairly and accurately as "respectful without being reverential, knowledgeable without being pedantic" and claim that it offers a "glimpse of how the vast majority of the world's Muslims understand their Prophet and their faith." The book is an excellent first introduction for the further in-depth study of Islam and its founder.