Following are a few extracts from a book I recently read. The book is “Muhammad: Prophet for our Time” written by Karen Armstrong. Armstrong is among the world’s most foremost commentators on religion and an important advocate for interfaith understanding. Her other books include A History of God, Muhammad: A biography of the Prophet, Buddha: A biography, Islam: A short history, and many other bestsellers. After I read the book, I must say that she’s a genius and truly honest to the subject. She tries to provide a ray of hope in this world overshadowed by the dark, gloomy clouds of wars, distrust, injustice and disharmony by focusing on one of the most important aspect of the Prophet’s life: the pluralism that Islam supports. She also tries to make the tenets of Islam (especially the difference between hilm and jahiliyyah) clear, very clear, and accessible for readers of all faiths. These are the extracts from the introduction part of the book:
The history of a religious tradition is a continuous dialogue between a transcendent reality and current events in the mundane sphere. The faithful scrutinize the sacred past, looking for lessons that speak directly to the conditions of their lives. Most religions have a figurehead, an individual who expresses the ideals of the faith in human form…. These paradigmatic personalities shed light on the often dark conditions in which most of us seek salvation in our flawed world. They tell us what a human being can be.
Muslims have always understood this. Their scripture, the Qur'an, gave them a mission: to create a just and decent society in which all members were treated with equal respect [emphasis mine]….
The life of the Prophet Muhammad was as crucial to the unfolding of Islamic ideal as it is today. His career revealed the inscrutable God’s activity in the world, and illustrated the perfect surrender (in Arabic, the word for “surrender” is Islam) that every human being should make to the divine…
The Qur’an is the holy word of God, and its authority remains absolute. But Muslims know that it is not always easy to interpret. Its laws were designed for a small community, but a century after the Prophet’s death, Muslims ruled a vast empire, stretching from a Himalayas to the Pyrenees. Their circumstances were entirely different from those of the Prophet and the first Muslims, and Islam had to change and adapt…. By understanding what had prompted a particular Qur’anic teaching, they could relate it to their own situation by means of a disciplined process of analogy…
As a paradigmatic personality, Muhammad has important lessons, not only Muslims, but also for Western people. His life was a jihad: as we shall see, this word does not mean “holy war,” it means “struggle.” Muhammad literally sweated with the effort to bring peace to war-torn Arabia, and we need people who are prepared to do this today. His life was a tireless campaign against greed, injustice, and arrogance…
Strangely, events that took place in seventh-century Arabia have much to teach us about the events of our time and their underlying significance – far more, in fact, than the facile sound bites of politicians.
Hope the above extracts entice you to read the book. It’s simply a Seerah (biography) of the Prophet but focusing on some of its very important aspects. It’s a page-turner. The language is very lucid and again the price is not much: around Rs. 290/-, available at any book store.
