Instead, Muhammad, the World-Changer reads kind of like a Muslim version of How to Win Friends and Influence People. So, if you’re looking for a depiction of Muhammad receiving visitations from angels or having direct talks with the Divine Master, you’re going to walk away from this text very disappointed. I have seen online reviews claiming that the book is inaccurate, but, to my eyes, it may be because the reader/reviewer seemed to be disappointed that there is only one depiction of a supernatural or holy event that occurs in this book, and it is treated as being from a liminal dream state on Muhammad’s account. (It eschews using “peace be with him” after each instance of his name in the text for readability reasons, for which I will do the same.) I cannot vouch for this book’s accuracy owing to my relative ignorance on the subject matter - but there is a detailed and exhaustive list of sources, some only available to Muslim scholars, that takes up nearly 10 percent of the book’s size on my Kindle. Mohamad Jebara’s Muhammad, the World-Changer is a book that’s concerned about the prophet as more of a historical figure than a religious one. (Thanks, Dad!) I’m glad I selected this book for review as I think I learned and grew from this read. Besides, my father has read the Qur'an, so I thought this might be a good way to connect with him as he fastidiously reads all my reviews in full. In the end, though, curiosity won over and I thought I would take a chance on this book.
After all, I didn’t want to perform an injustice to a subject I knew very little about.
Martin’s Press asked if I would be interested in reviewing this book, I hemmed and hawed on the request. I also knew very little about its guiding prophet Muhammad (peace be with him) aside from a possible caricature or two - such as he was a polygamist. Before reading this book, I didn’t know much about the history of the religion and its geopolitical context.
I have a confession to make as a white, English-speaking, Protestant Christian: I know almost nothing about Islam, except when it involves tales of mosque vandalizations and other examples of Islamophobia featured in the news.
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