Islamic civilization

AUCA Fall 2013

Paper assignment # 2
Abbasova Dildana
Two stories of the Prophet
Islam. One of the biggest religions of the world has very rich history, full of foundation
and fall of huge Islamic empires, tremendous wars and battles, culture and science
achievements, and, eventually, great people. Islam, being very young religion, has strongly
impacted on the present state of the World. We may raise one question. Who brought Islam?
Who was such a great person that inspired and continues to inspire people to devote
themselves to religion and belief in Allah?
The Prophet Muhammad. He was the one who turned all the World history and made it go
another direction. He, truly, made an incredible deed of bringing into the World the new
religion, the new source of internal light to people. And to expose on the paper the life and
personality of such a human might seem very difficult. Karen Armstrong and Tamim Ansari,
popular historian writers, were from the brave group. Two books about Muhammad need to
be compared. The stories of Armstrong and Ansari have some important differences, such as
attitude to the Prophet, but the thing is that these authors both write to pursue the same goalto show Muhammad and Islam as what they actually are.
Islam religion is strongly tied with the personality of Muhammad. Muslims admire, love
and respect their Prophet. He is the example of the person by whom Allah is truly satisfied.
Living like Muhammad, pursuing the same goals, believing in the same virtues is the best
way to be good Muslim. Muhammad, to Muslims, is the best man ever lived. But he was such
a multi-faceted personality that can be depicted in different ways.

Karen Armstrong, the religious writer, devoted a whole book to the story of life of
Muhammad from his birth to his death. Every little detail is noted in her story. Tamim Ansari
devoted only one chapter to the Prophet, paying attention more to the history of Islamic
civilization. Seven pages of text shortly showed the life of Islams founder.
Volume, however, is not very important, because one can express all the idea in one word.
But the big difference in these two stories can be noticed easily. Armstrong in her book shows
us Muhammad the Prophet, Ansari shows us Muhammad the Politician. Karen gives reader
the picture of great personality with great charisma who inspires soul to believe in Allah.
Muhammad is the central figure in Islam religion. He brought Quran. He taught people to be
Muslims. To Armstrong Muhammad is figure that built a new religion. To Ansari,
Muhammad is figure that built a new World, Islamic World. The prophet founded Islam, and
then gathered people to build a new strong community that soon became the second biggest
empire in history. He was one who breathed the great change in World history, in set of its
forces. He fought on battles with his people for the right to be Muslim, he ruled the
community. He was the righteous politician. Ansari showed political side of Muhammad very
well, but did not show his soul, his charisma of inspiration, his religious side as Armstrong
did. That is what mainly differs Armstrongs and Ansaris interpretations. Woman put
attention on religious deeds, man emphasized more on political accomplishments.
Indeed, Muhammad was both great in religion and in politics. He gathered wild
Arabic tribes into cohesive and strong community, filling their hearts with hope and virtues.
He built Umma. Armstrong and Ansari both emphasize on this tremendous accomplishment
of the Prophet. This deed is beyond ranks of religious or political sphere. As Armstrong
writes in her book: Muhammad had great spiritual as well as political gifts the two do not
always go together and he was convinced that all religious people have a responsibility to
create a good and just society If we could view Muhammad as we do any other important

historical figure, we would surely consider him to be one of the greatest geniuses the world
has known [1]. The Prophet helped Arabs to get rid of social instability, by building the
community, in which social justice is the priority of development. He brought Islam in World,
where poor and disadvantaged suffered unjust behavior of the rich and mightiest. Islam is
religion of hope and justice. And it has been such a hope not only to Arabic nomads, but to all
Muslims around the World. Ansari shows us this by only one sentence: Islam presents a plan
for building a righteous community. Muhammad, to Ansari and Karen, is the figure that
represents the continuous hope in better social life. Such was Prophets mission, great and
difficult- to destroy ignorance of people, to help them to get out of the sucking swamp,
jahiliyya.
This swamp no longer holds Muslims. But it greatly enfolded West in its mud. Both our
writers put great attention to this problem. Western society, being confused by horrible deals
of some non-real-Muslim groups, has wrong point of view on Muhammad and on whole
Islam. Western civilization built very ignorant assumptions on the life of Muhammad and
principles he followed. Jihad, in this case, is the right example. it doesnt mean the Holy
War, it means struggle [2]. Western people, conversely, think Muhammad was the
Prophet of war. To Muslim, who read Quran and knows Islams principles, it will be more
than mistakenly. Actually, Islam is realm of piece. And this religion will forever promote
peaceful relations within the society.
Ansari and Armstrong wrote two seemingly different books on this delicate topic, about the
Prophet of Islam, religion of peace, not of war. They both emphasize on big ignorance from
the West, on jahiliyyah, which rose up from different wrong assumptions. Muhammad, to
Ansari and Armstrong, is the figure of hope and justice. Muhammad brought Islam in human
civilization and will be respected by everyone, who ever tried to see on Islam and on his life
from the right perspective, as our writers did.

Bibliography
Karen Armstrong. 2001. Muhammad: The biography of the Prophet. Weidenfeld & Nicolson
History. Paper edition.

1. Page, 52.

2. Page, 7.

Tamim Ansari. (2010). Destiny disrupted: The history of the World through Islamic eyes.
Pulic affairs. Paper edition.