The First Muslim - Book Report/Review Example

Introduction The book enumerates the life of Muhammad. The story includes Muhammad’s birth which was tainted by the murder of his father. The story ends with death of Muhammad. The author enumerates the numerous war exploits of Muhammad. The author impresses on the readers some doubts about Muhammad’s prophet status. The story ends with the division of the Muslim followers into two warring factions: Shiite and Sunni. Hazleton questions the legitimacy of Muhammad’s prophet promotion. The First Muslim The author does not show any evidences to prove any part of the story. The book is written like a fiction novel or a fairy tale. Both novels and fiction novels do not show any supporting evidences of the author’s story. The readers are left on their own to decide whether to believe the author’s summary of the life of Muhammad. Further, the author offers a weak challenge to my assumptions of the subject matter at hand. With not evidences supporting the veracity of the author’s story, the author’s message is baseless. Anyone can create a fairy tale or fiction story. However, life and justice is built on evidences. Without any evidence supporting the author’s propositions, the author does not significantly convince anyone to change one’s prior knowledge of the life of Muhammad, the first Muslim. Furthermore, the author offers several values in the book. First, the author places importance on power to control the people. The author indicates Muhammad used forced against people who refused to obey his instructions. Instead of showing proof or signs from God that he is a real prophet sent from God, Muhammad murders all the male Jews and enslave the children and women simply for refusing to accept Muhammad God’s prophet (Hazleton 287). In addition, the author perfectly explained that people can change. Muhammad had shifted from a peace-loving political leader to espousing war against those who are not Muslims and those who refuse to be converted to the fold. As a trader in Abu Talib, Muhammad sold his products along the trade routes at fair prices. Muhammad distributed his profits to the poor (Hazleton 89). Muhammad and his wife, Khadija, would give money and food to the poor (Hazleton 94). Further, the author places importance of not placing much importance on unsupported stories. The author indicates she does not delve deeper into the issue of what really happened in Mount Hira. She dares not delve into the issue in order not to offend Muslims. Her intention is merely to introduce the issue of the Mount Hira incident to Angel Gabriel meeting Muhammad. She does not delve into proving whether the revelations between God and Muhammad are real or fiction. In the bible story, Angel Gabriel removes fear and never touched any human person. On the other hand, the Muhammad account showed Gabriel terrorized and created fear on Muhammad and choked Muhammad 4 times (Cleveland 7). Furthermore, the author creates an impression that the Muhammad had the penchant for attacking non-Muslim people. Muhammad attacked the Jews. The Jews led by Nadir and ibn-Ubayy resisted Muhammad’s attack on their territory. Muhammad charged the Jews for treason against Muhammad, forcing them to leave Medina, the city of the Jews. Muhammad ordered the cutting down of the Nadir Palm groves, a historic symbol of strong Jewish tradition (Hazleton 287). Moreover, the author emphasized the value that a good leader will unite the people. Muhammad is described as a very good political and military leader .he married women from other tribes in order to consolidate his power. He built alliances with neighboring tribes in order to ensure his power will stretch into many territories. One of Muhammad’s favorite war strategies was classify as a deception, taken from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu’s war concepts (Hazleton 313). Further, the author indicates the value of questioning whatever is presented without any evidence. The author questions some stories of Muhammad. One story espoused by Muhammad stated that a huge boulder was placed by the Jews on top of a mountain. The boulder was released in order to crush Muhammad to death. However, Muhammad heard an angel instruct Muhammad to leave the location. When the boulder fell on the location, Muhammad was not hurt. The author questions the veracity of Muhammad’s story. The author states there is no logic to the concocted story (Hazleton 286). Furthermore, the author clearly creates the value of not accepting doubtful stories. The author impresses on the readers that the Koran is not the word of God but simply like any other textbook or storybook. The author reiterated that Muhammad himself was convinced that the Mount Hira meeting was not real. The author insists that Muhammad could be hallucinating. The entire Mount Hira episode was Muhammad’s mind working against Muhammad’s very normal senses. The author states Muhammad affirmed that he was terrorized by God’s appearance on Mount Hira (Hazleton 9). The author espouses Muhammad could have been possessed by an evil jinn or spirit. Moreover, the author espouses the value of accepting only what can be logically real. The author backs the theory of Muhammad’s hallucination with Muhammad’s own words. Muhammad stated that two men had opened belly. The two men removed his heart. Next, the two men removed a black drop from Muhammad’s heart. The two men finally threw the black drop away. Finally, the two men washed Muhammad’s heart with snow, cleaning the heart in the process (Hazleton 43). In addition, the author emphasized the value of using medical science to prove or disprove a story. The author reiterated Muhammad suffered from epilepsy. The author creates an impression that Muhammad’s epilepsy triggered the so called divine interventions or Mount Hira concocted story. The author offers possibilities that Muhammad was a fabulist, liar or dreamer (Hazleton 44). In one version, the author refers to Muhammad’s youngest wife, Aisha stated the Angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad on Mount Hira and told Muhammad to recite. Next, Ibn Zubayr, one of Muhammad’s followers insisted that Muhammad awoke after following Angel Gabriel’s instructions to recite. After awaking, Muhammad felt he was either a poet or a madman. The author believes this creates a vivid impression that Muhammad was dreaming the entire Mount Hira story (Hazleton 107). The author evades the issue that Muhammad really saw Angel Gabriel in Mount Hira by reiterating that only neuropsychiatrist can affirm whether Muhammad’s Mount Hira was a mere hallucination, ordering on Muhammad in a state of altered consciousness (Hazleton 110). The author offers a suggestion that Muhammad’s words concerning Angel Gabriel’s visit is not angelic apparition. Further, the author offers evidence to point that Muhammad had been hallucinating the entire Mount Hira story. Muhammad’s lack of the required daily sleep triggered the hallucination. Muhammad’s fasting also led to the hallucination. Muhammad’s intense hallucination led to the hallucination (Hazleton 110). The above abnormal human activities trigger changes in the human mind, often leading to hallucinations. Furthermore, the author inserts the value that one must view with skepticism anyone who does show proof to prove a point or message. The author indicates another story to that seems to discredit Muhammad as the real messenger of God. After Muhammad recites Quran verses to the visitors, Muhammad instructed Abu Talib to obey the instructions of Abu Talib’s teenage son, Ali. Those present felt that Muhammad’s instruction was foolish. (Hazleton 129). As expected, the visitors felt Muhammad was truly out of his head. In fact, Muhammad attacked and massacred the Qureyz Jewish community, because the Jews refused to accept Muhammad as God’s prophet (Hazleton 316). After killing the male Jews, the Muslim victors sold the children and women as slaves (Hazleton 321). Moreover, the author creates the value of not believe in lies. Lies are easily discovered when different stories are in conflict with one another. The author shows Muhammad presented conflicting stories. In one version, the angel visited Muhammad when he was a young child. In another version, Muhammad stated the two angels actually visited him when he was an adult moving towards Medina, changing his former version of being visited when he was a child. Muhammad stated that one of the angels opened Muhammad’s chest and too out Muhammad’s heart. After removing, the angel washed Muhammad’s heart and cleaned it. After washing and returning Muhammad’s heart, the angel sewed up hi breast (Hazleton 43). In addition, the author’s account of Muhammad’s death contradicts other stories. The author emphasizes that Muhammad died from fever and his deteriorating old age health. The author insists that Muhammad contracted a disease that had spread all over the Middle East. Other authors insist that Muhammad was poisoned by one of Muhammad’s concubines. The concubine placed poison in Muhammad’s drink in order to avenge Muhammad’s massacre of her entire family and village (tebyan.com, 1). Further, the author beautifully ends her story with the value of independence. The author creates an impression on the readers that Muhammad did not appoint his successor. Muhammad left the decision to appoint the next leader to his leaders, shura members. However, the issue of who will be the next leader created the strife or division among the Muslim world. The author insisted that Muhammad called for Ali, to indicate he preferred Ali as his successor. However, Aisha persuaded Muhammad to call her father, AbuBkr. Another wife, Hafsa, insisted that Muhammad call her father, Omar. In response, Muhammad called both Omar and Abubker, cancelling his call to Ali. This is the reason wars and fights often break out between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims (Hazleton 389). Sunni tradition states Muhammad in the arms of Aisha. On the other hand, Shiite tradition states Muhammad died with Ali at his side. The council of leaders, shura, chose Abu-Baker as Muhammad’s replacement (Hazleton 399). However, the Shiite Muslims insisted that Muhammad wanted Ali to be the next leaders and refused to accept the Shura members’ decision (Voth 142). Conclusion Personally, I feel the author is freely entitled to her opinion in our democratic society. Just like other fairy tale or fiction writers, the author is free to present her side of Muhammad’s life. The book is written in a style, format, and content that have no significant proven historical value because she does not support her stories with evidences. She leaves the readers to accept or not her biased story. The author had achieved the purpose to explicitly cast doubt on some of the stories of Muhammad, including Muhammad’s hallucinating and dreaming of the Mount Hira meeting with Angel Gabriel. The author perfectly argued her thesis that there is no concrete evidence to prove that Muhammad is God’s messenger or prophet, including emphasizing that Muhammad massacred the Jews for rejecting Muhammad as God’s prophet (Gabriel 142). The author uses Muhammad’s illogical boulder story to convince the readers that some of Muhammad’s stories did not really happen. The book did not challenge me intellectually as the author did not present any concrete evidence to back up her story. However, her story may create doubts on the minds of the readers (Muslims and non-Muslims) on whether Muhammad is the true Prophet of God. The author convincingly presents the idea that the story of the Mount Hira meeting with Angel Gabriel and the Boulder story was not real. The author provokes the readers to doubt the legitimacy of Muhammad’s prophet status. Evidently, the author uses logical explanation of hallucination to create doubts on whether Muhammad is the true prophet of God. Abu Afak affirmed Muhammad suffered from sociopathic behavior in his lust for power because he could not know what was right or wrong (Shammeem 114). Works Cited Cleveland, William. A History of the Modern Middle East. New York: Westview Press, 2012. Print. Gabriel, Richard. Muhammad: Islam's First Great General. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. Print. Hazleton, Lesley. The First Muslim. New York: Riverhead Books Press, 2013. Print. Shammeem, Ahmad. The Fascinating Story of Muhammad. New York: Authorhouse Press, 2014. Print. Voth, Ben. The Rhetoric of Genocide . New York: Lexington Press, 2014. Print. Tebyan.com, Martyrdom of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir. Web 9 December 2014. < http://www.en.islamic-sources.com/article/martyrdom-of-imam-muhammad-al-baqir-a-s > Read More