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The Life and Legacy of Muhammad
New religious movements aren’t earthquakes - they’re not generated by blind natural forces, and they’re not inevitable. Social and spiritual change requires a catalyst to set it in motion. And in the case of Islam, that catalyst has a Muhammad.
He was a charismatic individual, born of the existing culture of sixth-century Arabia and yet somehow alienated from it. He drew on existing religious ideas in radically new ways that would change his world - and ours - forever.
Join Maria Dakake of George Mason University for a riveting exploration of Islam’s founding prophet. The Life and Legacy of Muhammad leads you through the earliest historical accounts of the prophet’s life and personality. Along the way, you’ll examine struggles over Muhammad’s legacy in the centuries since his death. You’ll also examine the ways Muslims have understood the meaning of Muhammad in their religious lives and the ongoing debates among scholars and Muslims over his life, example, and teaching.
The Sufis have a “Muhammad is a man, but not like other men; he is a ruby, while other men are stones.” These 10 illuminating lectures are your chance to discover just what that means.
He was a charismatic individual, born of the existing culture of sixth-century Arabia and yet somehow alienated from it. He drew on existing religious ideas in radically new ways that would change his world - and ours - forever.
Join Maria Dakake of George Mason University for a riveting exploration of Islam’s founding prophet. The Life and Legacy of Muhammad leads you through the earliest historical accounts of the prophet’s life and personality. Along the way, you’ll examine struggles over Muhammad’s legacy in the centuries since his death. You’ll also examine the ways Muslims have understood the meaning of Muhammad in their religious lives and the ongoing debates among scholars and Muslims over his life, example, and teaching.
The Sufis have a “Muhammad is a man, but not like other men; he is a ruby, while other men are stones.” These 10 illuminating lectures are your chance to discover just what that means.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 23, 2025
استمعت لهذا الكتاب، وهو مجموعة محاضرات تقدمها أستاذة أمريكية تتقن العربية، رغبة مني للتعرف على وجهة النظر الغربية تجاه السيرة النبوية للرسول الأعظم. معظم ما ورد في الكتاب معروف وهناك جوانب كثيرة لم تنل حظا من التحليل والنقد من قبل المؤلفة. ولكن والحق يقال بأنها قد حاولت جاهدة أن تلتزم بالموضوعية في فصول الكتاب وخصوصا في مواضيع هي في الأصل مثار اختلاف بين المسلمين أنفسهم.
March 29, 2022
This short Great Courses book on Muhammad and very early Islam is a great supplement to the quick coverage this subject matter usually gets in surveys of the medieval world or the origins of Western Civilization. Muhammad was obviously a fascinating man but important moments in his life like the first revelations from the Angel Gabriel, the move to Medina, the return to Mecca, and the succession after he passed away, are usually painted in quick brush strokes that fail to help the reader understand the intricacies of what was happening around him. The succession of Abu Bakr after Muhammad’s death illustrates this point quite well. It’s usually presented as the faithful gathering to pray and elect a successor. And yet, this succession was decided while Muhammad’s family was burying the prophet and one of the main contenders to succeed him, Ali, was not even present. And some of the actions Abu Bakr took next (like confiscating the prophet’s wealth to distribute to the poor instead of letting it be inherited by his family) certainly looks like an attempt to suppress the ability of Ali to challenge his rule. Details like these enrich history and let us see a little bit behind the simplistic curtain that popular histories often draw over complicated events.
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If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
November 11, 2022
An interesting short course on Muhammad
August 5, 2022
Dakake presents a concise and interesting overview of Muhammad's life and the lasting impact he had on Arabia, and ultimately the entire world. She hits on the major highlights of his upbringing, orphaned at a young age in a land of many orphans and widows due to rival clan conflicts that were so prevalent in the Arabian peninsula before the 7th century. She describes his early visions and dreams, which convinced him and his family members and close friends that he had an important destiny to fulfill for the people of Arabia.
Without getting too bogged down in details, she does a good job of presenting Muhammad's struggle to gain authority and eventually unite warring tribes under the belief in one god, Allah, with Muhammad as his last and most significant prophet. She makes it clear that Muhammad was both a religious and a political leader, which helps explains why Islam is so closely tied to government authority in much of the Muslim world today. She explains how the prophet died without having the opportunity to write out a last will and testament that would have clarified his intentions for succession of authority, which eventually led to controversy and the development of several major factions in the Muslim community: Sunnis, Shiites, and Sufis.
Dakake uses the last part of her book to present a broad picture of the major tenets of Islam based on the teachings of Muhammad in the Quran and the expansion on those teachings by the leaders that followed him over the course of several generations. She offers some clarity about Sharia law, which seems to be largely misunderstood by Christians in the west. She does a good job of demonstrating the intersection of Islam with Judaism and Christianity while showing how the three faith traditions became more distinct and distant over time. Her discussion of the treatment of women and the evolution of gender roles within Islam is of particular importance.
On several occasions, Dakake emphasizes how Muslims regard Muhammad as fully human, a prophet, not a deity (much the way they view Jesus, Moses, and Abraham). The idea is that, even though Muhammad was a man, he was like no other man. Okay, fine but Muslims associate the prophet with supernatural events and attribute superhuman abilities to him that make that belief system quite a contradiction. And I think over the centuries, Muhammad has become more deified by many Muslims around the world, whether they admit it or not.
As a young tradition compared to the other major world religions, Islam is still "growing up" to some degree. It has large and powerful factions that seem to be willing to use any means, including violence, to protect the honor and reputation of their prophet. Muhammad is so revered and adored, and for the most radical believers, devotion to the prophet leads to strong intolerance. I see this kind of fanaticism as something completely separate from the political ambitions of individuals and groups who use religious belief as justification for seizing and maintaining power, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, or even Buddhist. Unfortunately, the teachings of Muhammad are similar to those of Jesus in that both have been distorted and manipulated over the centuries to the extent that they have lost their inherent principles of love and peace.
Without getting too bogged down in details, she does a good job of presenting Muhammad's struggle to gain authority and eventually unite warring tribes under the belief in one god, Allah, with Muhammad as his last and most significant prophet. She makes it clear that Muhammad was both a religious and a political leader, which helps explains why Islam is so closely tied to government authority in much of the Muslim world today. She explains how the prophet died without having the opportunity to write out a last will and testament that would have clarified his intentions for succession of authority, which eventually led to controversy and the development of several major factions in the Muslim community: Sunnis, Shiites, and Sufis.
Dakake uses the last part of her book to present a broad picture of the major tenets of Islam based on the teachings of Muhammad in the Quran and the expansion on those teachings by the leaders that followed him over the course of several generations. She offers some clarity about Sharia law, which seems to be largely misunderstood by Christians in the west. She does a good job of demonstrating the intersection of Islam with Judaism and Christianity while showing how the three faith traditions became more distinct and distant over time. Her discussion of the treatment of women and the evolution of gender roles within Islam is of particular importance.
On several occasions, Dakake emphasizes how Muslims regard Muhammad as fully human, a prophet, not a deity (much the way they view Jesus, Moses, and Abraham). The idea is that, even though Muhammad was a man, he was like no other man. Okay, fine but Muslims associate the prophet with supernatural events and attribute superhuman abilities to him that make that belief system quite a contradiction. And I think over the centuries, Muhammad has become more deified by many Muslims around the world, whether they admit it or not.
As a young tradition compared to the other major world religions, Islam is still "growing up" to some degree. It has large and powerful factions that seem to be willing to use any means, including violence, to protect the honor and reputation of their prophet. Muhammad is so revered and adored, and for the most radical believers, devotion to the prophet leads to strong intolerance. I see this kind of fanaticism as something completely separate from the political ambitions of individuals and groups who use religious belief as justification for seizing and maintaining power, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, or even Buddhist. Unfortunately, the teachings of Muhammad are similar to those of Jesus in that both have been distorted and manipulated over the centuries to the extent that they have lost their inherent principles of love and peace.
April 25, 2024
Tough review, because some of the material is very good. Some of it is truly awful. Imagine for a moment someone approached you with the idea that "sure he 'consummated' his relationship with a 9 year old, but she was very mature for her age"? Sound like absurd apologetics for something morally condemnable? There's plenty more of that.
Another issue is that the lecturer is clearly making an appeal for a version of reformed Islam that barely exists, and is actively condemned in most muslim majority nations. This western compatible, "feminist" interpretation of Islam is very popular in apologetics, and not so much in practice. The contradiction is never elaborated upon.
For the cherry on this sundae, the lecturer chooses to address the issue of Islamic terrorism by letting us know that it's not representative of the religion at all, but then spends 15 minutes laying out how we should understand that someone drawing insensitive cartoons makes all muslims very angry? I don't know anyone who would launch into a speech in the form of "sure, he massacred a few dozen people, but we have to understand women made him really angry, and the dating world is unfair" without being treated like a lunatic in turn.
If you can swallow that nonsense, the rest of the material is decent and informative. One star for the terrorism and pedophilia apologia.
Another issue is that the lecturer is clearly making an appeal for a version of reformed Islam that barely exists, and is actively condemned in most muslim majority nations. This western compatible, "feminist" interpretation of Islam is very popular in apologetics, and not so much in practice. The contradiction is never elaborated upon.
For the cherry on this sundae, the lecturer chooses to address the issue of Islamic terrorism by letting us know that it's not representative of the religion at all, but then spends 15 minutes laying out how we should understand that someone drawing insensitive cartoons makes all muslims very angry? I don't know anyone who would launch into a speech in the form of "sure, he massacred a few dozen people, but we have to understand women made him really angry, and the dating world is unfair" without being treated like a lunatic in turn.
If you can swallow that nonsense, the rest of the material is decent and informative. One star for the terrorism and pedophilia apologia.
February 9, 2023
This a really great summary of the life of Muhammad and the birth of Islam. It touches on a number of controversies, and seems to reflect the same things that Muslims I know say about their religion and the violent things that are perpetrated in its name. The professor discusses these issues, but this is a short course, so I didn't expect her to go into detail about them. I wanted to hear more but what she gave us was well within the scope of a course like this, so I didn't take any points away.
I'd listen to this audio course again.
I'd listen to this audio course again.
April 3, 2024
Interesting summary of Muhammad and the development of Islam. However, while the author provides analysis throughout the book, her analysis is almost always apologetic justification for uncomfortable aspects of the story, rather than real analysis and reflection from an independent observational perspective.
April 1, 2023
Interesting topic. I didn't know about the wars fought to establish Islam. Also interesting that Prophet Muhammad wanted to leave control to Ali but the Muslims divided their beliefs thinking that there were other viable Imams.
May 8, 2024
I was expecting more of a historical take on Muhammad but this was distinctly more a believers perspective of the understanding of the founding of Islam. It was still informative for an outsider to learn about this perspective of the prophet.
January 16, 2026
I actually listened to this on audible, but it was interesting and factual without overt bias. The author/lecturer seemed intent on presenting facts and allowing the listener to draw their own conclusions. Informative and easy.
April 13, 2022
Extremely informative. Loved it. Unbiased. Difficult topic to some but very lovely history.
December 21, 2023
As someone who basically knew almost nothing about Muhammad this was very interesting and enlightening
July 27, 2024
Interesting enough if you want an overview of Muhammad's life but if you are looking for something critical look elsewhere this is generally apologetic.
February 6, 2025
Very interesting!
November 30, 2025
I think this is a good introductory to Islam. First you understand its founder and then progress from there outward.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews