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Unsheathed: The Story of Muhammad
This is the story of the goatherd who changed the world. Although he was one of the most influential men in history, few people today know anything about him. This book, researched from the earliest Islamic sources, documents his life.
Here at last the truth is laid his humble beginnings; why he believed he had a message from Allah; how he convinced some of his neighbours to accept his message and why others were sceptical; and what eventually led to swords being
UNSHEATHED.
In the bitter conflict for Arabia’s soul, treaties were broken, strangers were slain, and parents, children, brothers and wives were betrayed. Survivors were drawn into the close-knit Muslim community and the compelling rule of sharia. The Prophet, convinced that Allah had sent him as a mercy to all the world, met every challenge without faltering in his mission.
This is the story of Muhammad.
This is the complete, unabridged and fully-referenced original edition.
Here at last the truth is laid his humble beginnings; why he believed he had a message from Allah; how he convinced some of his neighbours to accept his message and why others were sceptical; and what eventually led to swords being
UNSHEATHED.
In the bitter conflict for Arabia’s soul, treaties were broken, strangers were slain, and parents, children, brothers and wives were betrayed. Survivors were drawn into the close-knit Muslim community and the compelling rule of sharia. The Prophet, convinced that Allah had sent him as a mercy to all the world, met every challenge without faltering in his mission.
This is the story of Muhammad.
This is the complete, unabridged and fully-referenced original edition.
393 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 23, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 26, 2017
Simple, well-cited, and free of bias. Quite entertaining too.
Great resource.
Great resource.
September 29, 2022
Stumbled upon this after regretfully stepping into Quora, noticed the top answer to a question was a direct plagiarism of a lower comment, but with really low-quality 3D images to represent the characters being spoken about for no reason. Turns out that account wrote two books - here's one of them!
As evident by the title, this is not an unbiased coverage of the topic; it is intentionally framing the story of the Prophet Muhammad's life, and the beginnings of Islam, as a narrative of violence and bloodshed. A minor nonlethal fight between an early convert and a polytheist caused by the flinging of insults? Yeah that deserves as much pages (and a full-page illustration) as the Prophet's first revelation experience. A well-known story of Muhammad mediating a dispute between four political elders in Mecca? Better mention that one of these men gets killed by Muhammad's troops during the war later on, because that's relevant. The book even finishes thusly: "it is because the world is filled with people who reject this message [...] that the sword of Islam has never been sheathed." Imagine narrating the beginnings of Christianity, and declaring that Jesus throwing the moneylenders etc. out of the Temple was "the first blood drawn for Christianity," and finishing with the same quote prior, but with the faith names swapped.
What's more baffling (or is it? I think I expected it) is the utter failure to be intellectually honest. So many details are included for a very poorly-documented period of history (ie. every point in Muhammad's life, from infancy to death) that I am positive countless of them are invented or apocryphal. Other spurious claims come out of left-field, like how when his first wife Khadija is introduced, the author simply writes: "the popular tradition that she was a much older woman is almost certainly false," claiming that she was 27 despite the consensus across history being that she was 40. Prophet Muhammad's revelation in the cave is attributed to "the angel Seraphiel," which for all my effort I could not find ANYTHING explaining how the author got this detail wrong. In every source and writing, the angel who revealed the Quran is named as Gabriel. Seraphiel is an obscure angel mentioned in the Book of Enoch, who is maybe present in Islam as well under a different name (but never associated with Gabriel). Did the author just make this up? I have no idea. I would love to just consult the sources for these claim, but despite technically including bibliographies for each chapter, the author has chosen the novel format of just dumping every citation in a giant block paragraph at the end of each chapter with 0 indication for which claim/fact each reference belongs to. There should be a screenshot of this directly below now. Let's just say APA does it differently for, well, several reasons.
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0/5 not even worth a peek for morbid curiosity.
As evident by the title, this is not an unbiased coverage of the topic; it is intentionally framing the story of the Prophet Muhammad's life, and the beginnings of Islam, as a narrative of violence and bloodshed. A minor nonlethal fight between an early convert and a polytheist caused by the flinging of insults? Yeah that deserves as much pages (and a full-page illustration) as the Prophet's first revelation experience. A well-known story of Muhammad mediating a dispute between four political elders in Mecca? Better mention that one of these men gets killed by Muhammad's troops during the war later on, because that's relevant. The book even finishes thusly: "it is because the world is filled with people who reject this message [...] that the sword of Islam has never been sheathed." Imagine narrating the beginnings of Christianity, and declaring that Jesus throwing the moneylenders etc. out of the Temple was "the first blood drawn for Christianity," and finishing with the same quote prior, but with the faith names swapped.
What's more baffling (or is it? I think I expected it) is the utter failure to be intellectually honest. So many details are included for a very poorly-documented period of history (ie. every point in Muhammad's life, from infancy to death) that I am positive countless of them are invented or apocryphal. Other spurious claims come out of left-field, like how when his first wife Khadija is introduced, the author simply writes: "the popular tradition that she was a much older woman is almost certainly false," claiming that she was 27 despite the consensus across history being that she was 40. Prophet Muhammad's revelation in the cave is attributed to "the angel Seraphiel," which for all my effort I could not find ANYTHING explaining how the author got this detail wrong. In every source and writing, the angel who revealed the Quran is named as Gabriel. Seraphiel is an obscure angel mentioned in the Book of Enoch, who is maybe present in Islam as well under a different name (but never associated with Gabriel). Did the author just make this up? I have no idea. I would love to just consult the sources for these claim, but despite technically including bibliographies for each chapter, the author has chosen the novel format of just dumping every citation in a giant block paragraph at the end of each chapter with 0 indication for which claim/fact each reference belongs to. There should be a screenshot of this directly below now. Let's just say APA does it differently for, well, several reasons.
[image error]
0/5 not even worth a peek for morbid curiosity.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews