The Prophet Muhammad and Islam

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Muhammad and the Islamic faith with the help of the book "Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet" by Karen Armstrong. The paper explains that contrary to Western belief, Jihad does not mean "holy war", instead it means "to struggle" and refers to the struggle that every Muslim must make in order to live a peaceful and good life. The paper looks at Muhammad's revelations, which would become the Qu'ran. The paper then discusses the history of Islam and points out the differences between the three Abrahamic faiths. The writer believes that the book is written in a very non bias way and gives us in the West the true portrayal of the man who we have misunderstood for centuries.

From the Paper:

"Muhammad was portrayed as the Anti-Christ and Islam as a religion of the devil. This view of Islam has changed little since then and this is the source of the Islamic bias we find so prevalent in the West today. Although today anti-western feeling might seem a basic part of the Muslim ideal, historically it is a very new development. Most Muslims remained unaware of the West until just over 200 years ago. Even during the Crusades, which were a very important of Western history and identity, the majority of the Islamic world was unaffected by them. Though Muslims of the near East were deeply impacted, the Muslims of the Islamic heartland, namely Iraq and Iran, were entirely unaffected and viewed the Crusades as simply remote border incidents."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. 1st. New York: HaperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1991.
• Belz, Prof. Julie A. "Facts about Islam." September 13, 2001. 19 Nov 2006 <http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/a/jab63/islam.facts.html>.

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