The Rise of the Prophet Muhammad: Don't Shoot the Messenger
They say you can judge a person by the friends he keeps, but the focus of this book comes, in part, from the enemies of the Prophet Muhammad. Viewed by some as one of the most influential figures in history, he continues to polarise people.
This book is written for people of all faiths and none who are curious as to how an illiterate orphan born in 570 emerged from the desert sands of Arabia to become a great political, military and religious leader.
His importance to today’s 1.8 billion Muslims cannot be underestimated especially since his name is part of the five-times-a-day call to prayer. Whenever it is spoken by them, it is usually followed by the phrase “may God’s blessings and peace be upon him.”
The phenomenal growth of Islam saw the rise of an empire more than 10 times the size of lands conquered by Alexander the Great, five times the size of the Roman Empire, and seven times the size of America.
British journalist Yvonne Ridley first came to international prominence after 9/11 while working on an undercover assignment in Afghanistan after being captured by the then-ruling Taliban. The senior Fleet Street reporter became global headline news for the next 11 days while she was held by the regime, before being released in October 2001. She wrote a best-seller of her account in captivity and recently graduated with an MA in Modern War Studies. She still works as a journalist and is also a political commentator on Middle East and North Africa affairs.
"Ridley also isn’t afraid to tackle the most sensitive subjects head on, such as the Prophet’s consummation of his marriage to nine-year-old A’isha (ra). Unlike some Muslims who try to claim that A’isha was older than nine to perhaps appease a Western audience, Ridley directly states that the most authentic Muslim view is that she was indeed a young girl. But she then goes on to explain that such marriages were commonplace at the time and warns against judging seventh century Arabia by the standards of the modern secular liberal West. Don’t Shoot the Messenger is a relatively short book of just over 100 pages, so you can read it in a day or two if you really focus. It’s written in an easy, journalistic style for the layman but it’s obvious that Ridley has done a great deal of research at the same time."
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