Deceptive abridgement

The audio version is NOT the full text, but an abridgment. The advertisement does not notify the reader of this -- meaning that it is deliberately deceptive. I own the book version. There are only five chapters in the audio version, whereas there are 85 chapters in the written version. The audio version does not identify which of the original chapters is being read -- meaning that it is IMPOSSIBLE to connect the abridged audio version with the original text. Why on earth was this made in a way so unfriendly to people who would like to follow carefully?I am angry with this deliberate, misleading, confusing deception that is never explained to the purchaser. Shameful.

19 people found this helpful

Beautiful Account of the Life of Prophet Muhammad.

This book is not a melodramatic or emotional account of the Prophet Muhammad. For that, you have to look elsewhere. It is instead a beautifully composed account of the Prophet Muhammad based directly on some of the earliest sources to the Prophet Muhammad including Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, Waqidi, Azraqi, Tabari, and Suhayli.

There are variations of the Prophet Muhammad's biography, depending on what sources are used. This is to be expected. But Martin Lings is a very honest author, and he does little to inject his own opinion into the biography gathered from these sources. That is the true value of this book - composing the traditions about the Prophet Muhammad into a timeline, and helping give the reader a deep and connected context of what caused different events to occur.

The abridged version does not do justice to the book - it leaves out too much. But if you insist on listening to an account of the Prophet Muhammad's life, this is the book to read.

18 people found this helpful

Excellent

An excellent and inspiring account of the life of the Prophet, particularly helpful for non Muslims.

20 people found this helpful

Moving!

What made the experience of listening to Muhammad the most enjoyable?

The narrator was great

What did you like best about this story?

The author tells the story as it is. The story comes across as balanced without being patronizing or apologetic.

4 people found this helpful

Does it follow word for word

The narration by Sean Barrett is not accurate.
It does it follow the text in the book. Very annoying if I want to read the actual book, i don’t know what spot I am on.

2 people found this helpful

Abridged version does not do justice.

Abridged version probably doesnot do justice, as lots of important reasons for events are left out and the reader who is not aware of some specific events is left wondering and confused that why such an event happened?

10 people found this helpful

One of the standard Western works om Muhammad

If you want to get to know Muhammad through Muslim eyes, while not being able to read Arabic, this book is just the book. While it incorporates legends and possibly some myths about the prophet of Islam, it does give the reader/ listener an excellent overview of the man Muhammad.

The fact that it is abridged gives some force to the story and helps the listener to understand Muhammad's life as a whole. I've read the book in the past and find that the portrait is much better sketched, with some of the details left out.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in Islam and especially its prophet Muhammad. Martin Lings did a great job of helping readers to understand this complex person.

7 people found this helpful

A short biography with inaccurate accounts

I read the The Sealed Nectar - the most authentic biography of Prophet Muhammad - and now after reading this biography I can only say that writer couldn't do justice with the so much profound personality and many missing key facts and inaccurate accounts of some the aspects of life of Prophet Muhammad.

I would not hesitate to say that it feels that the less has been put into research and more has been added by borrowing form different books. Following are some of the key areas where writer has been flawed:

1. Age of Ayesha at the time of her marriage with Muhammad - which according to correct research was between 16-19 years.

2. The allegation that Badr War was resulted from the intention of Muhammad to rob the Quraish trade convoy led by Abu Sufyan - this is totally baseless.

3. He married with the wife of Zaid Bin Harsa because he was impressed with the beauty of the wife this influenced Zaid to divorce her.

4. The revelation of denouncing Zaid Bin Harsa from the name of Muhammad as his son to pave the way to marry his ex-wife.

There are many other accounts where writer clearly fell short of giving essential details, the Quraish boycott, preaching in Taif and Battle of Hunain is among some of them.

I would highly recommend to read The Sealed Nectar instead of the biography by Martin Lings.

6 people found this helpful

abridged version omits a lot

I understand that this is considered the best book on this subject in English, and the storytelling is good. The book seems to be very well researched, and the author conveys the history in a straightforward way, without excessively interjecting his own opinion. However, this abridged version omits entirely some of the major episodes of Muhammad's life of which I was already aware. My goal in listening to this book had been to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge of the subject. In the end, I was left disappointed that I had not chosen to read the unabridged print version.

1 person found this helpful

Need unabridged version

Felt like the unabridged version would have additional details. Need those sections to complete the full story.

1 person found this helpful