Customer Reviews

Mohammed And the Unbelievers : a political life (Islamic trilogy series, v.1)

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This book is fascinating. Most of it is a condensed version of Ishaq's "Sirat Rasul Allah" (Life of the Prophet of Allah), the semi-sacred cannonical biography of Allah's Apostle. Since Ishaq's source-text is disjointed (like the Koran), this work rearranges the original text logically, so as to achieve clarity for the Western reader. Further context is provided by occasional qoutes from the other books of the Islamic triad-canon, the Hadith and the Koran.

Like the other books in this paperback series, it is written in middlebrow/"newspaper" contemporary American English. The publisher recommends reading this text before tackling CSPI's abridged or unabridged version of the Koran.

The amazing thing about the historical Mohammed is that everything we know about him comes from the Sira, Hadith and Koran. For centuries, Western scholars have studied these texts and came to their own opinions and conclusions about the soi-disant "seal of the Prophets." since Mohammed is easily one of the two most important figures of world history, its about time 21st Century readers can measure up their appraisal of Mohammed with that of scholars from the pre-P.C. era of the early 20th century, such as the authors of the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia (now in the public domain, NO LONGER COPYRIGHTED)> http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10424a.htm ("Mohammed and Mohammedanism",
subheading "I. The Founder", last two paragraphs):

"Modern scholars, such as [names ommitted], give us a more correct and unbiased estimate of Mohammed's life and character, and substantially agree as to his motives, prophetic call, personal qualifications, and sincerity. The various estimates of several recent critics have been ably collected and summarized by Zwemer, in his 'Islam, a Challenge to Faith' (New York, 1907). According to Sir William Muir, Marcus Dods, and some others, Mohammed was at first sincere, but later, carried away by success, he practised deception wherever it would gain his end. Koelle 'finds the key to the first period of Mohammed's life in Khadija, his first wife', after whose death he became a prey to his evil passions. Sprenger attributes the alleged revelations to epileptic fits, or to 'a paroxysm of cataleptic insanity'.

Zwemer himself goes on to criticize the life of Mohammed by the standards, first, of the Old and New Testaments, both of which Mohammed acknowledged as Divine revelation; second, by the pagan morality of his Arabian compatriots; lastly, by the new law of which he pretended to be the 'divinely appointed medium and custodian'. According to this author, the prophet was false even to the ethical traditions of the idolatrous brigands among whom he lived, and grossly violated the easy sexual morality of his own system. After this, it is hardly necessary to say that, in Zwemer's opinion, Mohammed fell very far short of the most elementary requirements of Scriptural morality. Quoting Johnstone, Zwemer concludes by remarking that the judgment of these modern scholars, however harsh, rests on evidence which 'comes all from the lips and the pens of his own devoted adherents. . .And the followers of the prophet can scarcely complain if, even on such evidence, THE VERDICT OF HISTORY GOES AGAINST HIM'." [emphasis added]

Now you can come to your own verdict on this towering figure of world history and present-day geopolitics!

The vital information that all us "unbelievers" need to figure out what is going on--yes, us, the people under constant and escalating attacks by Muslims--can be found in the core documents of Islam--the Qur'an, and the other documents that aid in understanding the Qur'an; the Hadiths (the deeds and words of Muhammad and his Companions) and the Sira(the earliest biography of the Prophet by Ibn Ishaq). These documents, taken together, form the Sunna, laying out the "well worn path," showing Muslims how to emulate Muhammad, the "perfect man," in all things; how to view and treat unbelievers, war, strategy and tactics, slavery, the role and treatment of women, the different treatment accorded to Muslims and non-Muslims, permissible behavior, the goals of Islam. Together these three documents describe and define the political, military, and supposedly "religious" ideology that is Islam. These documents are also the source for the all-encompassing Shari'a laws that Muslims want to impose on all non-believers. Unfortunately, the earliest and most accepted biography of Muhammad, Ishaq's "The Life of Muhammad" (Sirat Risul Allah) as translated by A. Guillaume, is 800 pages of very confusing, dense, close set type and is very heavy going. So, a readable, faithful to the original condensation such as "Mohammed and the Unbelievers " is invaluable for non-believers who are trying to figure out why Muslims all over the world are pursuing Jihad against all non-believers.

This book is a short, very readable and straight forward condensation which leaves out all miracles; pertinent quotes from the Qur'an begin each section. So that the accuracy of this biography can be verified, each entry is cited to the original sources--the Qur'an, the Sirat Risul Allah, Muir's biography of Muhammad, and to the most accepted Hadiths--those of Bukhari and Muslim. The editors have let the document speak for itself and editorial comments are very few. The scholars at CSPI have also produced a much more readable, reorganized Qur'an , "A Simple Koran," and a subject oriented compilation of the the essential Hadiths, "The Political Traditions of Muhammad," so that non-believers, armed with the knowledge contained in these three core documents, can evaluate statements made by Muslim spokesmen, various experts and government officials and also better understand what is really going on in the world today.

Great insight to understanding where med east politics are formed and where the muslim focus comes from.

This short book (167 pages) provides a fascinating and readable story of Muhammad's life. It summarizes the earliest biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq and weaves into the biography parts of the Muhammad's teachings from the Koran, traditions about Muhammad from Hadith (by both Bukari and Muslim) and history of Islam by al Tabari.

The advantage of this book over some modern biographies of Muhammad is that this book has not been filtered through the lenses of Muslim apologetics or modern Western political correctness. The story comes directly from Islam's earliest and most sacred sources. Almost every paragraph in the book has been documented from those sources.

The picture that emerges is that Muhammad was a man who was kind, hospitable, generous, loving, patient and forgiving--toward Muslims who submitted completely and unquestioningly to his rule.

Toward "Kafirs" (unbelievers), on the other hand, he was mercilessly vicious and cruel. He would threaten, intimidate, deceive, rob, rape, enslave, torture, execute and slaughter Kafirs by the hundreds! On one occasion, he sat all day long watching literally hundreds of Jews who had surrendered to him being beheaded at his command. Then he ordered their wives and children into slavery.

Muhammad ordered the executions of people for no other reason than the fact that those people had criticized Muhammad or had changed their minds and turned away from his religion. He "captured slaves, sold slaves, bought slaves, freed slaves, tortured slaves, had sex with slaves, gave slaves as gifts of pleasure, received slaves as gifts, and sued slaves for work" (164).

He allowed the black slave of his wife Aisha to be tortured in order to determine whether Aisha was faithful to him or not--and only after the torture revealed that Aisha was faithful did Muhammad receive a revelation exonerating her of any wrongdoing.

These stories do not come from Islamo-phobic right wing "crusaders" but from Islam's earliest and most sacred sources. These are the stories and teachings that Muhammad encouraged his followers to emulate--and which faithful Muslims in power have emulated for over a thousand years.

The book is absolutely outstanding and should be near the top of the reading list for every adult in America--especially for those in government.

Seldom do authors put so much time and effort into their books, (for all people) as does Bill Warner. His books took decades to reseach and produce. This authors books will enlighten every human being throughout the world. Serious answers to serious questions we all have concerning our past, present, and future. If you have ever wondered how or why we have reached this point. This author has found the truth (important answers) through years and years of non-bias reseach.

It doesn't matter your faith, skin color, ethnic background, or political party this author can and will enlighten you and your family, for a better tomorrow through the truth.

My any regrete is that this truth is 1400 years late, and has cost the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Some books don't properly fit into the 5 star rating system here. Normally, my 4 stars mean 'not bad'. I am not sure that I would call this book 'not bad'. In some respects it is not very good at all. In others it is certainly a useful and definitely an interesting book.

It intends to give a paraphrased short summary of a translation (by A. Guillaume)of the 'official' Islamic biography (written by Ishaq) of the prophet Mohammed. It says at the end that it hopes that readers are now sufficiently interested to read the long version.

Actually, no, I am not. It seems that the Ishaq book is endlessly tedious. It also seems that the Guillaume translation is not undisputed. I can't judge that. I am definitely interested to read a solid critical biography written by a non-religious historian. I don't think I will bother with Ishaq. Nor Guillaume's version of Ishaq.

Of course the subject is endlessly interesting. How did a bunch of Arab marauders grow to rule over a substantial empire covering Northern Africa and Western Asia, plus some pockets of Europe, expanded eastwards in Asia and threatened Europe? The book only covers the start-up period of that military adventure.
The next mystery is even more mysterious: how did a trader, war profiteer, male chauvinist and polygamist from a vindictive tribal civilization, a leader of robbers, plunderers, slave holders and rapists, manage to write a moral code that continues to define the world in large parts until today? Much harder to answer than the first question, maybe impossible, especially in view of its astonishing lack of morality. It is one thing to accept that times were like that, but quite another that modern man (women don't count) should live by the same standards.

The book has some shortcomings. It is not well edited. A re-issue should invest some time in proof-reading.
Then I have a problem with the fact that the publishers do not explain who they are and what the purpose of the study center is. The version that they give is quite obviously not genuine. The text is not just paraphrased Ishaq/Guillaume, but it adds pieces from other Muslim texts, including the Koran. And it makes comments which clearly show that the intention is not 'friendly' to the subject. In such cases it is better, in my opinion, to be quite frank about background. Not many readers like to be fooled about such things.

In the end one might say the editorial purpose is achieved: the summarized and paraphrased text seems to self-destruct. We see the hero as a monster. Since that looks a little too simple, one might want to read on elsewhere.