Customer Reviews

Muhammad: Man of God

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A short and clearly written book. I have read a few of Mr. Nasr's book and he is truly a great scholar of Islam. I did find the last portion of the book which dealt with the last trip of the holy prophet to Mecca and his speech regarding Ali, may God be please with him, rather surprising and, to be honest, troubling. If this story is true, then certainly holy prophet would have given a strong signal as his intention of making Ali as community's guide after his departure. I talked to the imam of our mosque and of course, like a good imam, he was of no help except saying that I should not bother reading books written by Shia authors since shaitan will get a hold of my mind. I told my dear imam, "look, is stupid written on our foreheads that you treat us like kids?" I have been in the US for 15 years and have a PhD in my field, do you really think this answer is going to satisfy me. When my wife, then a Christian, was considering Islam, she got the same non-sense from her family and friends, that Islam is a strong hold of "Satan", it is amazing how similar we are in our tactics towards each other. I must say that at the present I am neither a Sunni nor a Shia until I investigate this further. My commitment in to God and his holy Prophet and not to anybody else, and if Prophet wanted Ali as the guide then so be it, you will not get an argument against it from me. I really do hope that sincere scholars try to present what Prophet really wanted as "Islam" and not what tradition and history has apparently forced upon us.

While the book itself spans over about 60 or so odd pages, there are two aspects of Muhammad's life that are treated with meticilious care. The noctrunal journey, or his ascension, which he regards as "the example of spiritual ascent and the model for spiritual life", is treated in 8 pages. The horizontal ascent that took him from Mecca to Jerusalem and his eventual vertical ascent from Jerusalem to the heavens, is shared in detail with writings of both Shi'i and Sunni'i scholars, thus highlighting the importance attached to this event depicted in the Quran, vide XVII:1. He also upholds the metaphysical nature of this journey, criticising that modern science tends to study the "physical" reality, and not spiritual.

Perhaps the underlying tone of the book is the constant jihad (exertion) of Muhammad against the heathens of Mecca, against all odds that opens up various levels of meanings to the affairs that seem very mundane in the biographical accounts of his life. Striking symbolism with events are unfolded with the writings of Rumi and Sa'di.

The most striking piece is with reference to the last sermon of Muhammad, delivered at Ghadir Khumm, where he exemplifies the "universalityy" of Islam and her ordainment as a "chosen" religion by God, vide Quran V:3. He brings to reference a Shi'ite text of the sermon, that characterizes the nomination of 'Ali, as a point of departure between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis over the issue of succession after Muhammads death. He admits that while both Shi'i and Sunni'i attest to the truthfulness and the veracity of the sermon delivered at Ghadir Khumm, proclaiming 'Ali as the 'mawla', they differ on interpration over the word 'mawla'.

Lastly, he concludes the title with a section on the relevance of Muhammad's life, his treatment of the Youth and the normativeness of his life, i.e the sunnah, "a vast treasury of examples of behaving and acting in various circumstances".

Before I end it would be worthwhile to comment on his treatment of the Shi'i and Sunni split over the matter of the caliphate. Elsewhere in a book [Shi'a, 10-11, Tabatabai] in the Preface he states: "The Sunni-Shi'ite dispute over the successors to the Holy Ptophet could be resolved it it were recognized that in one case there is the question of administering a Divine Law and in the other of also revealing and interpreting its inner mysteries. The very life of Ali and his actions show that he accepted the previous caliphs as understood in the Sunni sense of khalifah (the ruler and the administrator of the Shari'ah) but confined the function of walayat after the Prophet to himself. That is why it is perfectly possible to respect him as a caliph in the Sunni sense and as an Imam in the Shi'ite sense, each in it's own perspective."

That title will some day will be a review in iself,

Thank you for reading. ...

Often my friends ask me why I chose to become a Shia. My answer is very simple, if Quran is a "Perfect" book, then we need a "Perfect" teacher, otherwise Quran by its virtue of being Perfect will become useless and of little practical significance for Moslems. The fact that so many contradictory philosophies had emerged in the history of Islam, all relying on Quran as their primary source, indicates that Quran by itself could not be of much guidance. The fact that Islamic world collapsed, as did Communism, indicates that Quran was not in charge of our mind and lives.

Quran is a book of "Light" of "Clear Guidance" and yet Islamic world is so confused and lost. Obviously something is very seriously wrong, and I don't believe it is Quran. Rather it is our approach to Quran is wrong and has been wrong for centuries. Yes, I was a Sunni and I got tired of not knowing what Quran is all about, what is its inner meaning, what is its "True" message. I got tired of hearing all kind of speculations about the True meaning of Quran and knowing all too well that we all just guess and not a single one of us can say for sure what Quran means. Even the most fundamental principles of Quran which Al-Tawhid is a subject of dispute between philosophers, Sufis, theologians, all pointing fingers at each other and blaming each other for having missed the "True" meaning of divine unity. Enough is enough. I thought all this is Prophet's fault. How can he expect us to figure out what Quran is all about? If he did expect us to figure it out, then obviously he was mistaken as centuries of history is a witness.

I always thought that Prophet was the only one who knew was Quran was all about, and after his death, Quran too died, or should have died and saved us from so much pain. As long as he was alive, his was the last word, there was no maybe, could be, "God knows best" answers to questions put to him about verses of Quran, there was no uncertainty, no confusion. Only if he could live forever among us. But later I came across some books written by Shia authors, such as Dr. Nasr, and I realized that Prophet did leave us a point of reference someone whose views of Quran wasn't a whole bunch of best guesses. I don't blame Prophet anymore for the mess we are in, or have been in for centuries, I blame us. We did what Jews did to Isa- Jesus- in spite of his greatness, and having been promised by previous Prophets, his people decided to push him aside or attempt to kill him. The fact that history repeats itself was no mystery to me, it was just that I was too arrogant or stupid to see the truth and blamed Prophet of Islam for our misery and confusion instead of blaming ourselves for it.

I no longer believe that the "as is" Islam is the Islam that Prophet had in mind. The Islam of Prophet would have brought us Light, Clarity, Guidance, Peace, instead of confusions, darkenss, misery, which finally resulted in a total collapse and to this day we moslems are trying to figure out a way out.

I respect the Author very much, and I really like this little short book about the Prophet. I also find the comments written about this book equally interesting and enlightening. Unfortunately growing up in Middle East we don't get to question our faith or our understanding of our faith. Only when we leave that environment we get a chance to really reflect about some very fundamental issues about Islam and history. Realizing the collapse of Islamic world, I have often wondered about the truthfulness of Islam, and been struggling with this question for a few years. The usual answer of " America did it" doesn't make it either, at least not for me. Reading the history of Islam I really don't see anything divine about our Islamic empire. Islamic empire was like any other empire, and finally, like any other empire collapsed under its own weight. I cannot see anything divine about it. Sure we made some progresses in Math, astronomy, medicine etc, but so did other empires in the history. We had some ugliness associated with our Islamic Empire and so did other Empires. I see nothing special and divine about the inner workings of our Islamic Empire that could clearly distinguishes us from others in the history. So what difference did Quran make except in uniting us Arabs into one nation, which ended up in creating our Empire? If Quran was supposed to create a Divine Utopia, I have no other choice but to say that Quran has failed in this regard and again this failure can not be blamed on " Amercia" since the history of this failure pre-dates America.
It seems to me that Shia philosophy does provide some answer to this question and it makes me wonder. Their "claim" is that it is not Quran that has failed but rather "we" have failed in understanding Quran, it is our understanding of Quran that has failed. I very much like to read more about what Shiism has to say and to my surprise I found out that there aren't many books by Mr. Nasr on Shiism. My question to Mr. Nasr is why doesn't he write about what Shia has to say about Islam. Given the current situation on Islam, and the fact that many people like me are struggling with some serious questions about our faith, I think an alternative way of looking at Islam is a welcome news.

The book vividly illustrates why the Prophet of Islam continues to influence the world today and into the future, more directly and with more impact than any person in history. Nasr is an inspired writer.

This little work by Dr. Nasr is an excellent little introduction to the life of the Beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) which concentrates on the spiritual nature of his perfect life. In this manner it is different from most other biographies which concentrate on the political events. This book is important also in that it relays a little of the awe and total respect in which Muslims have traditionally held their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Also, though Dr. Nasr, is a Shia he does not allow that to cloud his objectivity.

Commenting on one of the earlier reviewers I will say that orthodox Sunnis too believe the Prophet of Islam to be perfect, and infallible and sinless both before the proclamation of Prophethood and after it.

This book is a good introduction, especially for younger readers or those who do not have the time to read a longer book.

There exist a great deal of confusion surrounding this historic character, Muhammad. A lot has been said and written. There is a book written in early days of Islam by Ibn Hisham, Sirat al-Nabi, which supposedly gives a good account of Prophet Muhammad.
First let me tell you that this book is not a worthy scholarly work whatsoever.
The author is clearly obsessed with Islam and the character of prophet Muhammad, so no one who is after reading an objective research should expect an unbiased account being produced by this author. He is as subjective as one could possibly get. What you probably get out of this book is no more than what you would get by going to a mosque in your city and listening to a cheap Mullah. Don't waste your time and money on something that you can get on any Islamic website on the net for free.
The best work that I have come across so far is 'Twenty Three years, a study of the prophetic career of Muhammad' authored by Ali Dashti.
Ali Dashti neither was an Islam basher nor an Islam-intoxicated like Nasr nor did he have any political motivations. In his work Dashti uses a wide variety of references, starting from Quran itself, Hadiths, and other important Islamic references.
First I thought to give the Nasr's two stars, but it isn't really worth it.