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The Prophet Muhammad

A Biography

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The Prophet Muhammad

By: Barnaby Rogerson
Narrated by: Kelly Hunter
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About this listen

The Prophet Muhammad is a hero for all mankind. In his lifetime he established a new religion, Islam; a new state, the first united Arabia; and a new literary language, the classical Arabic of the Qur'an, for the Qur'an is believed to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. A generation after his death he would be acknowledged as the founder of a world empire and a new civilisation. Any one of these achievements would have been more than enough to permanently establish his genius. To our early twenty-first century minds, what is all the more astonishing is that he also managed to stay true to himself and retained to his last days the humility, courtesy and humanity that he had learned as an orphan shepherd boy in central Arabia. If one looks for a parallel example from Christendom, you would have to combine the Emperor Constantine with St Francis and St Paul, an awesome prospect. Barnaby Rogerson's elegant biography not only looks directly at the life of the Prophet Muhammad, but beautifully evokes for western readers the Arabian world into which he was born in 570 AD.

©2003 Barnaby Rogerson (P)2004 Isis Publishing Ltd Islam Middle East

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A sublime human being and the greatest prophet. Conquered Mecca through humility, kindness and reconciliation.

The life of the greatest person in history..

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I appreciated the conciseness of the book as I needed a quick read/ listen of the Prophet's biography. But I wish the narrator didn't over-do the Arabic pronunciations. In some cases she sounded like she was about to dislocate her jaw in trying to pronounce some very simple words like "Khadija". I wish she had stuck to the anglicised pronunciations of the Arabic words because it was extremely cringy otherwise. Some words she pronounced entirely wrong in her unnecessary efforts and though being a Muslim myself I still could not decipher what exactly she was reading about.

Good for a brief study of the Prophet's life

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I’ve read this book a couple of times but years ago.

The intro is intriguing Rogerson explains why he is not a Muslim, in a charming but unconvincing way. He says his best Muslim friends are bad muslims who drink and chase women, yet have faith and can fast Ramadan with the pious. I love those guys too.

I think the real reason shows itself in the pages of the book. Brother Barnaby, in his intro says he loves a good story, but he doesn’t believe in the full story. He says Muhammed didn’t want to spread Islam beyond Arabia, but tells us of his letters to the rulers of Byzantium Iran and Ethiopia, come on. He tells how Muhammed stayed faithful to one woman 15 years his senior for twenty five years yet was polygamous after her death. He pointed out that Muhammed owned a slave, who was so beaten down, when his family claimed him he chose Muhammed above his family.

He did this for love and even though Brother Barnaby knows this he can’t throw off his Anglican upbringing. Brother Barnaby’s account of the Prophets death moved me to tears, and you can’t write like that without sharing the love. Don’t worry Brother Barnaby your friends are safe, Allah says if all men were pure and free from sin he would sweep them away and populate the world with sinners so could forgive, because He loves to forgive. Thank you Brother B

So near and yet so far;)

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- The book starts well by adopting a neutral perspective on the story of Muhammad
- It narrates the facts without giving a holistic overview of the historical context
- Muhammad is depicted as an evil and violent person
- The consequences of the acts that might seem negative were not highlighted
- Muhammad's life had a positive impact on humanity. The impact wasn't highlighted properly.

Does not capture the essence of Muhammad

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The author appears to be admiring the prophet, but portrays him as a person who would support his followers even if they are wrong. A man who chases after his love for women, to the point of a controversial revelation to get him to marry a woman already married to his previously adopted son.
The author describes prophet Mohamed peace be upon him as picking a fight with the jews in Madina, because he didn't like their presence. And skips the betrayal of the jews to the muslims in war and their attempts to assassinate the prophet to show the brutality of an undeserved punishment.
The description of how the Quran was revealed to the prophet is made to convey doubt within the wording of the Quran.

Poison within the honey

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Writer hasn’t portrayed the real person at all. Wrong and disrespectful use of vocab is used to describe Prophet Peace Be Upon Him. The book is a complete betrayal as the writer tries to give positive side and at the same time portrays a complete wrong image of him

Extremely poor

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