The Messenger of God

Muhammad

By: Fethullah Gülen

Narrated by: Dan Green

A compilation of Fethullah Gulen's sermons on the life of the prophet, the book offers us a deeper understanding of God's Messenger through looking into his exemplary life from different aspects.

©2005 Tughra Books (P)2012 Tughra Books

can't miss this if intersted in religions

i have listened to this book two times now and it. Besides giving thorough information about the religion itself, you get to know the personality of prophet Muhammad [PUH] and his extraordinary achievements.

Must read!!!

I didn't much about the author before reading this masterpiece. He explores, explains, and entertains.

Amazing Book

I haven’t read any book or listen any audio books about Muhammad (SAW) before like that . Thanks Fettullah Gulen and Dan Green .Mr Gulen died , l am so sad he was so kind and gentleman😢😢Mr Green you should feel being so lucky reading this book for us 🙏

Filled with wisdom and love

Would you listen to The Messenger of God again? Why?

For sure. The book is hope-filled and revives my confidence in the truthfulness and mercy of the message the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) brought.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Prophet and his wife Khadija do certainly emerge above all others, as they set the epitome of what it means to be faithful for both men and women.

Which scene was your favorite?

The section on his mildness and forbearance.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Meet the best of all mankind.

Any additional comments?

This book is filled not only with comprehensive biographical information, but also emotions with so many moving scenes of the Prophet's exquisite character. As one reads or listens along, one cannot help but rescale himself before this best model, and hopefully transform himself for the better.

Spiritually enriching & rejuvenating

The authors love of the prophet shines with guiding light of Allah.
Purity of faith

Wonderful Voice!

Wonderful book of Muhammad and Islam! It helped a lot with the amazing talented soothing voice.

Muhammad is still the messenger form GOD today

Real inspiring good reading lot's of history and insight inlightment good verses a must read

Sufi bent, repeats in parts and poor pronunciation

What did you love best about The Messenger of God?

Includes a lot of information. Well researched in general. Author seemed well-intentioned and had a love of the Prophet (sas) and sahaba (ra).

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Messenger of God?

Some of the stories about the dedication of the sahaba.

What didn’t you like about Dan Green’s performance?

This narrator has a good voice, intonation and pacing, but did not bother to do his homework on pronunciation of very common Arabic names, places, and terms. For example, Abu Hurairah (ra) is Abu Hoo Ray Ray . Abu Bakr (ra)is Abu Baker. Khadijah's (ra) name is reapeatedly pronounced as Khatijah. "Umar" is pronounced with the accent on the last syllable in several places. Presumably the transliteration (as is normally case) is just something you pronounce the way it looks, but he seems to arbitrarily make up his own rules, such as pronouncing "a" or "ah" as "ay" etc. This improves somewhat as the book progresses, but he also picks up the "z" mispronounciation of the "dh" sound. It would be unthinkable to make this many mistakes in pronunciation of common names and places in a book on Western hisotry, so this comes across as arrogance that it doesn't really matter because it's some "lesser people's" culture. Also says "vicegerent" at least three times instead of viceregetn.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I found the large number pronunciation errors offensive because it would not be acceptable for a book on Western history.

Any additional comments?

This book is not a chronological biography, but has sections based on themes, such as reasons prophets are sent, etc.
There is a lot of good information here.
I found this book somewhat odd in several respects. There are passages about the importance of the Sunnah, so this is a Sunni writer,
Also contains a lot of references to saints, and sufism, Rumi, tariqas, other sufi leaders.
Talks about Ali (ra) as "the greatest saint" and lots of discussion about Ali (ra) , which is mainly in line with typical Sunni belief, but may not be completely accurate with respect to his status among the sahaba. (And I generally think Ali (ra) is underestimated by most writers.)
One entire, long section is on the infallibility of the prophets (as), which is a controversial point among ulema.
Claims that the Prophet (sas) knew Ayisha (ra) was innocent of allegations against her when she lost her necklace, but does not give any evidence. I'm not sure how you would then explain Ayisha's accounts of the incidents that followed unless you don't believe they are authentic.
There are also comments about the Prophet knowing the future (which is true in the sense that he knew some of what was in the future because it was revealed to him but could be misunderstood) and about being present (now) when people are praying. Also about the Prophet visiting graves (which he first prohibited and then later allowed as polytheistic practices around graves disappeared according to the author.) I don't know if this is true or not, but it is highly controversial and someone with more knowledge than me might find it objectionable.
Repeats the same stories and hadiths in places, and these are not really some of the most siginificant hadiths in the religion relative to others. For example, he cites a hadith about a woman being able to travel safely through the muslim lands alone without any fear except for wild animals three separate times in the book, which is a hadith about patience.
Refers to Allah as God throughout the book, which is not a problem for me, but might be for some people.

A right wing Sufi interpretation

Before you get the book there are a couple of points you need to be aware of.

1. The book is written by a controversial Turkish politician for the Turkish audience, and in many senses for them alone.
If you do not know this fact and that you are unfamiliar with modern Turkish history, you might be at a loss to many small references he is making, and also the reason of the uncalled-for anti-secularism voiced throughout the book. Basically the author is a proponent of Turkish re-Islamisation, championing a version of Islam that's both highly nationalistic and has little tolerance towards anything unIslamic. He was once a fellow political-ambitionist of the current Turkish president Erdogan. They both vied for absolute control of Turkey and dream of bringing back a fantasised version of "Golden age Islam". Things went out of hand in 2013 and the author fled the country till this day.

2. Ironically, despite the typical uneasy relationship between right wing Islam and Sufism in Turkey and in the Islamic world, the author is very obviously, heavily influenced by local Sufism. Unbeknownst to most westerners who romanticise Sufism as some kind of sacred inner path (whatever that might mean) , the core of most Sufi schools is built on their single minded devotion to the Prophet, frequently in a way that is blatantly unislamic. Muhammad (s.a.w) is portrayed in Sufism and of course in this book as an infallible God-man, much like the Christian understanding of Jesus. Unreliable hadith such as " God created the universe out of his love for the prophet alone " is paraphrased by the author in the opening chapters without scruple. The author goes as far as to say the only thing that attracts young men to go to mosque on a friday is their love for the prophet. While on a sentimental level it is correct and even praiseworthy, it is very problematic from an Islamic point of view. No, Muslims do not go to mosques because of Muhammad (S.A.W) alone, they go in order to worship Allah.

Aside from the above points the book is essentially a fine work, very devotional and very informative albeit being so obviously "Sufiastic" ( As a Western reader, your eyes might shine when the word Sufi appears, but as just said, it is not what you might think Sufism is about. )