The Life of the Prophet Muhammad Volume II

Rating:
Summary: Ibn Kathir on the Life of the Prophet Muhammad
Review: Ibn kathir's the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is one of the celebrated works in the respective field. As a Muslim theologian, he successfully captures various events unfolding in the Arabian Peninsula that necessitates the advent of a messenger from God. He then goes into sketching the Prophet's life before he is endowed with the mission to establish the religion of God. This volume (which is the first of a four-volume series) comes to an end when the Prophet starts preaching the new faith to the polytheistic Arab and some of them start listening to him.

Even though the book is very informative, ibn kathir, resorting to the practice of his era, provides as many narrations as possible to relate a single anecdote. He even mentions the chain of narrators from whom he related the story. Though his style is an indispensable tool for a Muslim scholar to discern the authentic reports from the false ones, it, however, affects the smooth reading of the material. In addition, ibn Kathir often leaves the reader in the dark, regarding the authenticity of a story being told, and thus, making it accessible to a scholar only.

There are a number of works on the life of the Prophet (PBUH) that relate the authentic stories alone. Ar-Raheeq al-Makhtum and When the Moon Split - both by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri; Muhammad Rasulullah: The Apostle of Mercy by Abul Hasan Nadwi are some good books on this subject.

Anyway, this book is worth having in your library as a reference to the life of a great Prophet!

Rating:
Summary: Ibn Kathir on the Life of the Prophet Muhammad
Review: Ibn kathir's the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is one of the celebrated works in the respective field. As a Muslim theologian, he successfully captures various events unfolding in the Arabian Peninsula that necessitates the advent of a messenger from God. He then goes into sketching the Prophet's life before he is endowed with the mission to establish the religion of God. This volume (which is the first of a four-volume series) comes to an end when the Prophet starts preaching the new faith to the polytheistic Arab and some of them start listening to him.

Even though the book is very informative, ibn kathir, resorting to the practice of his era, provides as many narrations as possible to relate a single anecdote. He even mentions the chain of narrators from whom he related the story. Though his style is an indispensable tool for a Muslim scholar to discern the authentic reports from the false ones, it, however, affects the smooth reading of the material. In addition, ibn Kathir often leaves the reader in the dark, regarding the authenticity of a story being told, and thus, making it accessible to a scholar only.

There are a number of works on the life of the Prophet (PBUH) that relate the authentic stories alone. Ar-Raheeq al-Makhtum and When the Moon Split - both by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri; Muhammad Rasulullah: The Apostle of Mercy by Abul Hasan Nadwi are some good books on this subject.

Anyway, this book is worth having in your library as a reference to the life of a great Prophet!

Rating:
Summary: ibn Kathir on the Life of the Prophet Muhamamd
Review: The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by ibn Kathir Vol I: 1 873938 16 0

Ibn kathir's the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is one of the celebrated works in the respective field. As a Muslim theologian, he successfully captures various events unfolding in the Arabian Peninsula that necessitates the advent of a messenger from God. He then goes into sketching the Prophet's life before he is endowed with the mission to establish the religion of God. This volume (which is the first of a four-volume series) comes to an end when the Prophet starts preaching the new faith to the polytheistic Arab and some of them start listening to him.

Even though the book is very informative, ibn kathir, resorting to the practice of his era, provides as many narrations as possible to relate a single anecdote. He even mentions the chain of narrators from whom he related the story. Though his style is an indispensable tool for a Muslim scholar to discern the authentic reports from the false ones, it, however, affects the smooth reading of the material. In addition, ibn Kathir often leaves the reader in the darkness regarding the authenticity of a story being told; thus, making it accessible to a scholar only.

There are a number of works on the life of the Prophet (PBUH) that relate the authentic stories alone. Ar-Raheeq al-Makhtum and When the Moon Split - both by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri are some good references on this subject.

Anyway, this book is worth having in your library as a reference to the life of a great Prophet!

Rating:
Summary: ibn Kathir on the Life of the Prophet Muhamamd
Review: The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by ibn Kathir Vol I: 1 873938 16 0

Ibn kathir's the Life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is one of the celebrated works in the respective field. As a Muslim theologian, he successfully captures various events unfolding in the Arabian Peninsula that necessitates the advent of a messenger from God. He then goes into sketching the Prophet's life before he is endowed with the mission to establish the religion of God. This volume (which is the first of a four-volume series) comes to an end when the Prophet starts preaching the new faith to the polytheistic Arab and some of them start listening to him.

Even though the book is very informative, ibn kathir, resorting to the practice of his era, provides as many narrations as possible to relate a single anecdote. He even mentions the chain of narrators from whom he related the story. Though his style is an indispensable tool for a Muslim scholar to discern the authentic reports from the false ones, it, however, affects the smooth reading of the material. In addition, ibn Kathir often leaves the reader in the darkness regarding the authenticity of a story being told; thus, making it accessible to a scholar only.

There are a number of works on the life of the Prophet (PBUH) that relate the authentic stories alone. Ar-Raheeq al-Makhtum and When the Moon Split - both by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri; by Abul Hasan Nadwi are some good books on this subject.

Anyway, this book is worth having in your library as a reference to the life of a great Prophet!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent source for non-beginners
Review: This book is part of a 4 book series. I use the word `book' interchangeably with `series'. The series begins with the pre-Islamic period up to and including the events right after the purdah of Prophet Muhammad (SAAS). This book is not an introductory book and as such may be challenging for budding historians or fleetingly curious individuals. The book presents each situation and conclusion with exhaustive research from multiple chains of narration. This book is a great reference guide and a resource for those individuals who are beyond the beginner stage of reading summarized historical accounts and are looking for `the source' of the recording. As such, this book and Ibn Kathir do an excellent job of presenting the narrators, their validity, degree of strength and the slight variations in the accounting that can lead to misinterpretations, especially as the events tie into tafseer of the Quran. I would highly encourage the addition of this series to the library of those individuals who are in search of a detailed analysis and presentation of the events that transpired. I would also highly advise AGAINST the use of any abridged or summarized versions. Such abridged versions may also lead to unintentional indoctrination into the editor's belief, because of the obvious subjective judgment involved in the production of such works.

Rating:
Summary: Abridged Version
Review: This is definetely a book to read and have it in any persons library who is interested in Religion. Obviously it is all about Prophet Mohammed (PBH). As is standard of the time, all the narratives starts with list of narrations. For some one who is not familiar with who those individuals are, names are very distracting, but they can not be eliminated either for they are reliable for some and unreliable for others. Major highlights are taken from Ibn Ishak or ibn Hashim, so it is difficult to find what new thing you learn from this book if you eliminate late narratives. For me it is a tremendeous gift from translators that made this book available to me in English. Ibn Kathir certainly one of the great scholars in Islam.