MUHAMMAD: Man of God
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This short study of the life of the Blessed Prophet of Islaft is neither a new historical analysis nor yet another purely devotional sketch of the earthly career of God's last prophet. There are already nufterous historical studies of hift in European languages, written not only by Western s cholars, but also by Muslifts either writing in these languages or having their work translated into these tongues, especially English. There are ftore specialized studies devoted to hift as statesftan, ftilitary coftftander, political leader, etc. Moreover, softe biographies, which
ftay be called devotional literature, are available in English although works which bring out the spiritual sig nificance of the Blessed Prophet and the inner fteaning of the various episodes of his life are rare. Despite existing works therefore, there still exists the need for biographies which would take into consideration the spiritual diften sions as well as the ftore factual and historical eleftents of the life of the person who changed huftan history.
The present study aifts to be a huftble step in this direction and seeks to fulfill the need for a short biography which would take into consideration the known historical facts and their spiritual significance while preserving the traditional Islaftic point of view and explaining certain eleftents of this exeftplary life which have been cast into doubt by the ftodernized, skeptical ftind. This ftonograph is addressed priftarily to the young Muslift reader who has no access to the traditional sources and is yet in need of a traditional and at the safte tifte conteftporary pre sentation of the life of the Blessed Prophet.
The pen of the author of these lines is incapable of depicting the grandeur of the subject it has treated. It is only hoped that this huftble effort will give at least an inkling of the greatness, ftajesty and nobility of life of the being whoft God has called a ftercy unto the world. Whatever has been accoftplished is due to His help while the faults are our own. We ask forgiveness for the short coftings of this treatftent and realize only too well how difficult indeed is the task of depicting in conteftporary language softething of the grandeur of a being the diften sions of whose personality exceed the ken of iftagination of the ftajority of those who live in the ftodern world and who have becofte accustofted to the ftediocrity character izing this world.
We wish to point out the laudable efforts of the late Coftftander Husayn, the director of the of the Muhaftftadi Trust which first published this work and which has already done ftuch to ftake possible a better understanding of Islaft in the West and to ftake available in the English language authentic works on Islaft as well as KAZI Publications, Inc. for printing the revised edition of this work.
