Customer Reviews

Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography of Allah's prophet

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Ali Sina is a brave man, and he make some interesting observations about the various mental illnesses and pathologies Muhammed exhibited. Unfortunately he isn't a very good writer and the book is a bit repetitive. Having said that, I do think this is a very important book and should be read by anyone who wants to understand the danger we face from this cult masquerading as a "Religion of Peace".

If people weren't so afraid of Islamic bullies in academia, we would see more analysis of Islam's fairly sordid origins.

It's pretty clear from the Mohammedans who wrote reviews here, they didn't read the book, nor will they, because they aren't allowed to.

Prophetic Analysis from staringattheview.blogspot.com

Imagine that three individuals were each commissioned to prepare the psychological profile of a self-appointed religious prophet who founded a tightly-knit community in Arizona in the mid-1800's.

The prophet, soon after the death of his wife of 25 years, began having dreams about the six-year-old daughter of his best friend and persuaded the friend that God had told him to marry her. He later used the same God-told-me-so line to convince his adopted son to divorce his attractive wife so he could marry her as well. The community was polygamous, but the prophet was the only man who could have as many women as he wanted.

The community had few financial resources, so the prophet developed the idea of robbing stagecoaches and trains that passed through the area. Slavery was legal within the community, and the people who were not killed on these raids were used and sold as slaves. Male members of the community had full sexual access to the female slaves.

The prophet's ambitions were much larger than the few hundred converts he garnered his first few years. He fully expected all the people of the area to accept his prophethood and join the community. When some refused, he turned viciously against them. Eight hundred men were killed in one day, and the rest were driven to outlying regions. When he realized that his people did not have the agricultural and industrial resources to provide for the needs of the community, he came up with a new strategy. He again attacked the people he had recently driven away, this time allowing them to live in exchange for giving him fifty percent of their produce. Shortly before his death, he stated a new ruling that they were to be driven completely from Arizona and never allowed to return.

As often happens with religious and political leaders who see themselves as chosen vessels, the prophet became more intolerant to criticism as he grew older and more powerful. Stories of the murder and assassination of his critics became increasingly common. One of his disciples bragged that he had come across a one-eyed sheep rancher who said he would never join the prophet's group. The disciple waited until the rancher fell asleep, and then thrust a sharpened stick into the rancher's good eye so hard it came out the back of his neck. The disciple next captured an associate of the rancher, tied his thumbs together, and led him to the prophet. The prophet laughed so hard at the sight, according to the disciple, that, "You could see his back teeth". The prophet blessed the disciple when he heard how he had killed the one-eyed rancher.

About the same time a 100-year old poet wrote lines critical of the prophet and his followers. In reference to the many regulations the prophet had established for the community, the poet noted, "You follow someone who divides everything into `This is allowed' and `That is forbidden'." As soon as the prophet heard this, he sent someone to assassinate the old poet.

A second poet, the mother of five children, was courageous enough to criticize the murder of the old man. She wrote, "I despise you people....you who obey a stranger and expect good things from him after he killed all your leaders." The prophet, realizing he was the "stranger" she was writing about, sent one of his followers to kill her. She was murdered in her bed that night with her nursing child lying by her side. Her murderer, perhaps touched with remorse by the heinousness of his crime, asked the prophet if anything bad would happen to him. The prophet replied that her death was of no more significance than two goats butting their heads together in the back yard.

Some time after the prophet's death, it was discovered that the Arizona desert underneath his followers' feet contained the world's largest diamond resources. Community members became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, and began to use their new-found riches to extend the prophet's vision that the entire world come under the influence of his teachings and principles.

Now back to the first sentence, where "three individuals" are each commissioned to write a profile of the prophet. The first is a university professor who is an expert in the teachings of the prophet even though he has not joined the prophet's community. He was recently given 25 million dollars by that community to establish a university department where the teachings of the prophet are examined. He is careful to only teach a version of community history appoved by his sponsors. His students rarely learn incidents such as the deaths of the poets and the role of the community in the slave trade as noted above. They know nothing about the world-wide political aspirations of the group.

The second individual is a fully-committed member of the community. She has been taught since her birth that the life of the prophet is the perfect model for all humankind to follow. She doesn't even know many of the details of that life, such as his treatment of the exiles who did not accept his message. She only knows what she was taught, one side of the story, and is not interested in learning more.

The third person is an ex-member of the community. He was born and raised within it, similar to individual number two, but at a certain stage began to question the things he had always been ordered to simply believe. His questioning led to doubt, and the doubt resulted in his leaving the community. He now sees himself as free, but his former associates, including individual number two above, view him as a traitor. Even the university professor, individual number one, despises him because he is not sufficiently "academically trained", according to the professor, to critically examine the community of which he was once a part.

Which of these three individuals might give the most objective profile of the prophet's life? If your answer is individual number three, I recommend this book by Ali Sina.

While Ali Sina's book is a critique of Islam and its founder, and his personal foibles, a similar book can be written about pretty much all Biblical prophets (including Moses and Abraham). It does not take an Einstein to figure out that religion is a major cause of strife and violence in the world and while Islam has been singled out for much criticism of late, a lot of similarly legitimate criticism can also be directed towards the other two Semitic faiths Judaism and Christianity.

Ali Sina builds much of his case on the Hadiths. Wikipedia says of the Hadiths :

"By the 9th century the number of hadiths had grown exponentially. Islamic scholars of the Abbasid period were faced with a huge corpus of miscellaneous traditions, some of them flatly contradicting each other. Many of these traditions supported differing views on a variety of controversial matters."

It is difficult to ascertain the veracity of material on the Prophet written more than 2 centuries after his death, and in my opinion, the Hadith are as reliable a narrative of the founder of Islam, as the gospels are of the founder of Christianity. Needless to say, the Hadith are important inasmuch as they shape public opinion among the Muslim masses regardless of their historic authenticity.

Coming back to the contents of this book, much of the material is, as promised a psychoanalysis of Mohammed. This psychoanalysis is falsified if it turns out that the material upon which it is based is not reliable. Apart from that, Freudian psychoanalysis itself as a discipline has progressed a lot since the days of Freud. What was accepted wisdom once (a person turning out evil because his mother didn't love him) is the butt of jokes now. Psychology very much like economics is not just an inexact science, but is also very subjective in nature. Consequently it is extremely difficult to psychoanalyze an individual even after several face to face meetings. Psychoanalyzing a long dead individual is an impossible task. Anyone who attempts to do so, risks creating an abstraction and a archetype of a complex flesh and blood individual.

This book will probably preach only to the converted. Devout Muslims will question the credentials of Ali Sina and attribute conspiracy theories to the publication of this book. Islam haters will use the material present in this book to further justify their hatred. And the rest of us will keep looking for a book which bridges the gap between science, religion, anthropology and sociology, a book which will treat religion as a necessary rung in the ladder of the evolution of human consciousness.

By denouncing religion as evil and wishing it away, we are no closer to resolving the problem of inter-religious strife. By looking down upon religious people as dimwits, we are only ceding the field to fundamentalists who move in and impose their vision of religion upon the masses. We have to accept that secular humanism is pretty bleak and joyless as an ideology. A sanitized world ruled by science and reason, which has no place for mystery and mysticism is not a world likely to appeal to most humans. And as the collapse of the consumerist utopia in much of the Western world shows, science is not the panacea to all the ills of the world. Science can provide material comfort, but humans still need to seek a meaning to life. That meaning cannot be provided by the Theory of Relativity, or double helix structure of the DNA, fascinating as these things are. Religion will continue to hold an important place in human society, but it need not do so at the expense of science. Science and religion operate in different realms and one is not a substitute for the other.

I have read many, many books about Muhammad and Islam trying to understand why the followers of this "religion" are so hateful, intolerant and perpetually angry. Why was Muhammad so cruel, manipulative, domineering and apathetic? How did he amass so many followers completely willing to stop thinking rationally and allow themselves to commit horrible atrocities? How is it that after 1400 years the attitudes haven't changed? This is by far the best information available.

Dr. Ali Sina is a former Iranian Muslim who operates a website called faithfreedom.org to educate both Muslims and non-Muslims about the dangers of following this cult. His book explains in depth the very likely psychological and physical problems suffered by Muhammad. The most obvious being Narcissitic Personality Disorder or NPD. Defined by DSM as a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and sense of entitlement. Often individuals feel overly important and will exaggerate achievements and will accept, and often demand, praise and admiration despite worthy achievements. Other criteria such as being obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence; interpersonally exploitative; devoid of empathy; arrogant;constantly envious are all descriptors of Muhammed. What is worse is that this personality disorder seems to have been bequeathed to his followers througout it's existance and we are seeing it in abundance today.

Other issues like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder help explain why Muhammed was obsessed with illogical rituals such as abulution before prayer for example:washing of nostrils by sniffing water into them three times, wipe whole head with wet hand once, wipe inner sides of ears with forefingers and the outer sides with thumbs, wash two feet up to the ankles three times beginning with the right. Other rituals include:how to make yourself pure after having sex, touching a dog, how and with what to wipe after defecating etc..and how these rituals are mandated and still performed by todays Muslims.

Sina also details the physical aliments most likely suffered by Muhammed like Temporal Lobe Epilepsy that perfectly explains why Muhammed believed he was being visited by Gabriel and numerous other characteristics and behaviors. I cannot possibly list them all.

Also of importance is the comparison of Islam with other cults and their leaders especially Jim Jones of the infamous Jonestown. This is particularly helpful in proving Muhammad as nothing more than a dangerous cult leader.

The information in this book is endlessly reasearched, factually accurate and from the Islamic sources themselves. Disregard all the negative reviews of this book and books like it from people who claim it is false, taken out of context, or misleading. When pressed, they never, ever are able to list one example of how the information is misleading. It is a clever attempt to keep the non-believers in the dark and is even in the Quran. Do not fall for it any longer. I encourage the reader to pass along the information gained from reading this book and continue to educate yourselves to the truth about Islam.

Few people know Islam well like Ali Sina - and even less match his courage in taking such a firm stand against it.

He is one of the few to critically analyze the root of Islam through the means of rational thinking and modern storiography - without the relativist curtain and the will of appeasing foreign cultures that is so widespread among many Western intellectuals. He is certainly the first to take the next step and analyze the psyche and mindset of its founder through the lens of modern psychology.

The picture he draws is extremely disturbing - but sadly, everything that Sina argues is soundly foolproof, reliably quoted from mainstream Islamic theology.

This is both the strength and the weak point of this book: many people who are not accustomed to the main points of the critic of Islam will be surprised by the harshness of words against Islam's doctrine and its founder, that is why I recommend this book only to those who are already familiar with the doctrine of Islam beyond its facade of Taqiya and political correctness.

If you are a Muslim don't bother: you might even change your mind about being one after reading it.

Had I not taken the advice of several of the above reviewers, perhaps I would have passed up this rational and unrefuted psychological examination of Mohammad and the true explanation of what (and why) muslims think and act as they do. I've never read anything as compelling with the potential of freeing enslaved minds as well as shaking up Islamic apologists.

I'll never view another news story, read another account of Islamic culture or history without appreciating and applying what I have learned. Muslims will continue to threaten Ali Sina with hell. Nothing in this work dissuades a person from a belief in God but I imagine readers will never again be able to keep a serious face when someone says Mohammad's Allah is God Almighty, creator of the universe. No question Islam is a house of cards and will soon collapse.

Buy the book, buy it new, I imagine his security costs are high. You'll benefit by acquiring one more degree of understanding above these cultists that may in time be used to help them and all of civilization.

There are many biographies of Muhammad and they all look the same. Even if we compare Muhammad's biography from his first biographer Ibn Ishaq, with, say, the one from Robert Spencer (The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion), we will not find many differencies. Basically Ishaq views Muhammad's murders, genocides and debaucheries as holy acts of Allah's Apostle worthy of emulation, while Spencer sees them as contemptible, but the content of both books is basically the same.

Ali Sina writes about Muhammad from different and so far largely unexplored point of view. After recapitulation of Muhammad's life written by critical pen of ex-muslim he examines Muhammad from point of view of modern psychology, psychiatry and psychopathology. He discovers Muhammad as a cult leader of the same kind as Adolf Hitler, Josif Stalin or Jim Jones. He is quoting from psychiatric textbooks and descriptions of different cults and compares described psychopathology with Muhammad's behaviour in different situations and shows that his personality fits the profile of mentally disturbed person and cult leader like a hand in a glove.

Classical martial wisdom says: know your enemy. For a practicing muslim Muhammad is a perfect model of conduct worthy od emulation in every aspect. Therefore his personality is the key to understanding of thinking of Muslims and of danger that those who really follow their prophet are posing to us - and also of unstable situation of those muslims who are living with idyllic fantasies of him. Ali Sina's book is unique and propably the best available tool which allows us to get such understanding.

I am not a novice when it comes to islam. I have read the quran, the hadiths, and learned from many revered islamic scholars. When discussing islam with muslim counterparts, I often discover I know much more about the religion than they. Still, after reading this, I find myself learning even more about one of the most influential (not necessarily in a positive way) men in history.

We know so much about the things muhammad did, some good, much cruel and barbaric. But we don't know *why* muhammad behaved the way he did.

Ali Sina's book brilliantly dives into the little discussed area of muhammad's psychology, and includes sources which islamic scholars to this day use as their own resources.

Why was muhammad so paranoid and delusional? Why was he so cruel and misogynic? For a man of God who was supposed to exemplify perfect conduct (quran verse 33:21), why did he behave like unforgiving barbarian, murdering, beheading, raping, enslaving, torturing, stealing, deceiving?

The answers are all here in Ali Sina's book. To truly understand islam, one must understand the nature of man who invented islam.

"Understanding Muhammad" is a necessary guide to understanding islam.

Any and all serious efforts to shine light on the darkness that is Islam is to be highly commended.

This book, and the author who knowingly subjects himself to Islam's characteristically harsh reaction by all who are caught in this web of lies and suppress all efforts to expose it for the death cult that it truly is certainly is worthy of deep respect.

Thank you, Mr. Sina, for being willing to put yourself and those you love at risk in the honorable service of truth.

This book is well worth the price. In the area of Islamic exegesis Ali Sina is a guide to the perplexed. For the beginner he answers the obvious questions without making the reader learn Arabic! Even for those who have studied the main Islamic texts and read other biographies of Mohammed he surveys the literature in a helpful systematic way and at the same time offers a new angle to understanding this man who started a religion 1400 years ago.

The first part of the book immediately pushes the reader in the deep end. A few (of many that could be told) contemporary examples murderous violence sets the stage for the big question: Why? Why is murderous violence so often associated with Islam? Why do Muslims who commit such deeds proclaim their allegiance to Islam and the founder of Islam, Mohammed? Why even after 1400 years does the `religion of peace' continue to reflect the example of its founder by too quickly reaching for the sword?

Mr Sina acknowledges that Mohammed was a charismatic leader. He knew how to relate to his followers and keep them happy enough to keep following him - even after his death! The new angle in this biography is the psychological profile of Mohammed. Many symptoms of possible mental, emotional and physical disorders associated with Mohammed abound in the Islamic literature. The Qur'an, hadith, and Sira provide the evidence of these disorders but no one has looked at them before with the eyes of modern medical science. Mr Sina looks afresh at this `elephant in the room.'

But free-will is still a factor in belief - both for Mohammed and his followers. Was Mohammed deluded, delusional or deluding? And of his followers, why did they believe his claims? The psychological profile of the Leader, any leader, has its mirror counter-part in the psychological profiles of the followers. The book is therefore not only useful in understanding Mohammed but also a clue to understanding his followers, indeed the followers of any cult.

This book is full of interesting descriptions and new information. From the beginning, the definition of sanity is raised as a central motif. How can perfectly normal sane people commit atrocious crimes? What is in their psychological make up which result in actions that are considered by non-Muslims to be insane? The answer is found in the psychological make up of the founder of Islam. Something there resonates with the dark spirit and base instincts found in the human beings, perhaps all human beings.

There is so much new in this book that I hesitate to quote any part of it as it may give the wrong impression that the book is about only one aspect of the many mental and physical conditions that Mr Sina covers. But a few lines in the section on epilepsy still resonate with me. One sufferer, who, like Mohammed, also received messages from God, wrote these lines (p. 132):

They reckon ill who leave me out;

When me they fly I am the wings,

I am the doubter and the doubt.

As an ex-Muslim he knows better than most the many and complex psychological attractions of Islam. As a non-Muslim, this book will help me understand the barriers to communication with Muslims.

Mr Sina's concern for protecting Western civilisation and respectfully reaching out to Muslims is very evident. His website clearly demonstrates his belief that through open and mature debate the truth of Islam and Mohammed will eventually set Muslims free from Islam.

If any criticism of this book is possible it is perhaps that Mr Sina is too optimistic that the truth will win out. But I hope and pray that he is right.