A Short Biography of Muhammad
Recently, I met an American lady on Facebook who said she was shocked to read what her seventh grade daughter is being taught in school about Islam. When she sent me a scanned copy of the text I was appalled.
Muhammad is presented as a holy man, someone who stood for the weak and the needy, who was opposed to his people because they were a greedy folk. They chased him out of his home because they feared he will destroy their income. The book claims all Muhammad’s wars were in self-defense, and says Islam spread thanks to Arabs traders. According to this book, as Muslims went to other countries for trade, they taught their religion along the way and people flocked to Islam embracing it eagerly. There is no mention of any of Muhammad raids and the savagery of Muslims in attacking and massacring millions of people after him. Jihad is mentioned as struggle for self improvement. It is clear that this book is written by Muslims. And the reason is that few people know about the history of Islam. Some even doubt Muhammad’s historicity. If scholars can be this confused, what do we expect from ordinary folk?
The ignorance of the life of Muhammad is not because of lack of information, but rather because of overabundance of it. There are four original sources of the biography of Muhammad. The Sira of Ibn Ishaq, the History of Tabari, the Book of Raids of al Waqidi and the Books of Classifications (Tabaqat) of Ibn Sa’d. These books are voluminous. The Tabaqat alone is in eight volumes, each having 400 to 800 pages. Not everything in these books is important. Al Waqidi, for example, dedicates several pages reporting when Muslims went to the Battle of Badr, and had to share their camels, who rode with whom and if other hadiths said differently he reported them too. Information like this, are utterly unimportant. It is easy to get drowned in the irrelevant and miss the relevant.
It is a real chore to go through thousands of pages and read irrelevant stories to get to the important facts and separate wheat from chaff. But that is only a minor problem. A bigger problem is to separate fact from fiction. There is virtually no story that does not contain some fiction. It is as if Muslims could not help themselves but to embellish everything they said about their prophet.
I went through all these books as well as the Quran and countless hadith and wrote a comprehensive book on the life of Muhammad. The result will be published in my new book The Life of Muhammad and hopefully will be shown also in a biopic. The movie and the book cover everything that is important and one need to know about the prophet of Islam.
Meanwhile I decided to write a very short history of the life of Muhammad for seventh graders and with the help of this mother and her lawyer we will try to convince the school to drop those books of lies and teach the truth to children. Uninformed children are easy prey, as we can witness so many teens going to join IS to either become murderers or satisfy them sexually. Also uninformed children grow up to become uninformed adults and lose their country to the enemy.
The text is short. It is written in an easy language for children in mind. But for adults I also included a reference so you can check and verify that nothing in this book is made up by me.
We are in the process of forming a task force, to first write about the other topics such as the history of the caliphs and the early Islam and the elements and laws of Islam. Once the text is complete, it is our goal to convince the authorities to adopt it as official text and stop feeding children with lies.
If you have a teen or know one, send this text to them. Send it to teachers and anyone you think should know it. If you think you can help in pushing the school board in your town to adopt this text please contact me. Our children are being indoctrinated and we must put an end to that. Not only children even most adults have no clue about Islam. This book is simple and makes things clear.
Ali Sina
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. See it for yourself and if you don’t believe check the reference.
This is also available in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Bangla.
This is test
It’s all bollocks!! He wasa opaedophile outcast that wrote a book and idiots have adopted it as a religion! Fuck you!
Dear Andrew Grimmett
I searched biography of Hitler for kids and found this.
http://www.ducksters.com/biography/adolf_hitler.php
Please let me know in what ways it is less condescending than what I wrote about Muhammad. Truth is truth. You can’t say it in any other way than truthfully.
Anyway, just as I can’t write better English, I can’t also write differently. I would however be very grateful if you of someone re-write this story in a way that you think is not condescending and email it to me.
Hi Andrew Grimmett,
In regard to spelling and grammatical errors, a couple of friends were kind enough to correct it. I really appreciate and am grateful to them. Criticism alone is not enough. If I knew how to write better I would have done it in the first place. So really to say there are errors is not going to change anything. I self thought myself English when I was already an adult. Language must be learned in childhood or you never master it.
In regards to being condescending towards Islam, I am afraid this is the true history of Muhammad. It is shockingly different from everything we have been told about him,even by very influential orientalists, whom as I argued in my book The Life of Muhammad, did not understand him.
This is only a draft. We are in the process of inviting others to contribute and I am sure they will have their input. I thought my duty is to expose the truth without reservation. Maybe other members of the team will want to change it. In any case we have to stick to the fact even if it is not palatable. I wonder how can we write the history of Hitler for children, be truthful and dry at the same time. If anyone can scan and send me short biography of Hitler taught in schools I would be very grateful as I an learn how to be truthful, but not condescendingly of the most evil man ever.
Sir:
As a concerned secular westerner, trying to divine the “truth” of what Islam is and what it means to so many of it’s believers. I am on long journey and happened to come across your site. You have written a lot of material that I am in total agreement with and your essay on the dilemma of Islamic terrorism is well thought out.
I agree that there needs to be much better education about Mohamed and the history of Islam: find out about both and any sane person would be hard pressed to continue calling it a “religion of peace”. So, I have read this grade 7 primer, but have come away very disturbed.
You seem to have put together a reasonable story with many references made to the sunnah, but by interlacing everything with an open condescension for that story and using every opportunity to undermine Islamic beliefs (plus many grammatical and spelling errors) you are not doing a good job. You cannot put personal opinions into a grade 7 primer, especially when it is of this very sensitive nature. No education board would be able to accept this for these reasons.
I really believe that if you can manage to combine a dry history of what we presume to know of the life of Mohamed i.e. squeeze out all the flowery nonsense broadcast by Islamic historians, continue (as you did) to focus on conditions at the time and pretty much end with the “apostate wars” and the sunni/shia schism, then our grade 7’s can decide where to go from there?
I will continue to check out your work, but I really do caution you against this condescension to Islam and it’s follower’s: you sometimes come across just like your “ugly Muslims”.
Yours in hope:
Andrew in Calgary
Dear Solange,
Will you be kind enough to do the editing?
Dear Mr Sina, Thank you for coming out with the truth for both children and adults. I read your short bio of Muhammad and hope that it reaches many teachers and school children, so that they may know the unbiased truth. It is even more believable and acceptable coming from a former Muslim, someone who most likely will not be accused of being an Islamophobe. One critique, if I may, it could use some serious editing. Once again, thank you.
Blogger Abhijit Roy has been hacked to death by unidentified persons on Dhaka University campus at about 9:30pm on Thursday.
Attackers also hacked and wounded Abhijit’s wife Rafida Ahmed Banya who was with him at the time of attack. Another unidentified person was also sustained injury.
Initial reports suggested that a group of men attacked the couple and hacked them with cleavers while they were taking tea at TSC’s Bat Tala area. It was reported that attackers mostly hit on their heads.
Seriously wounded, they were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where Abhijit, who is also a photojournalist, died at 10:30pm, confirmed DMCH doctor Reza.
Rafida Ahmed’s condition is also critical, doctors said.
Abhijit Roy, son of former Dhaka University professor Ajoy Roy, used to live with his wife in the USA. He was popular for his widely read blog ‘Mukto Mona’ of which he was the founder too. There are about a dozen books written by him
Avijit Roy has murdered by Islamist in Bangladesh
Mr. Sina,
Thank you for your response. I agree that we have to be open about Mohammed in every aspect, I just hope more Muslims are open to learning about how much lies they were taught to believe in about their prophet.
It is said in Proverbs, that “…truth will stand the test of time, whereas lies are soon exposed.”
The problem is that our hypocritical western politicians, the media and even Hollywood, are all holding water for Islam.
The “moment” that Proverbs speaks about, is long-drawn because of these liars. People just refuse to admit the truth about Islam. This is what has kept this evil ideology afloat for so long.
Anyway thanks for all the hardwork and the risks you put yourself and your family through, in speaking truthfully about this evil. The world desperately needs more brave intellectual warriors like you.
I am looking forward to your movie production on the life about Mohammed, and know for sure it will be done in a tasteful manner, so that the world will take us kafirs seriously as we try to expose the truth about Islam’s lies..
Keep up the good work
Mr. Sina, can’t wait to see that movie on that murderer, Pedophile, rapist. When is it going to be released?
Sir, you have at least 3 typos and grammatical errors in this piece. I suggest you fix them post haste.
A movie about Muhammad that does not show his face is worthless. The whole idea is to tell the truth. If we give in to political correctness and care about the sentiment of Muslims, instead of truth, we will lose this war. We will win only if we fight this war in our own term, i.e. by telling the truth, unadulterated and unchanged.
Not showing the face of Muhammad just because Muslims are sensitive about it is the first sign of weakness. Once you show weakness, the game is over. You lose and your enemy wins.
What I pledge to do is not stoop to silly caricaturization of Muhammad, as it is often done by his enemies. Muhammad in the movie will be portrayed like any major historic figure.
The Message, the movie made in 1976, played by Antony Quinn was utterly untruthful. It was approved by a Muslim. it was basically a hagiography. Notwithstanding, Muslims rioted and killed people for it. The movie I am proposing will be just as artistic and professionally made but truthful and backed by authentic Islamic sources.
Only truth will set us free.
Mr. Sina,
I can hardly wait to see your movie about the life of Mohammed hit the mainstream media.
Just a thought, because of the sensitive nature of the movie, please consider your targeted audience- Muslims, when you decide on the casting. Muslims do not like their prophet depicted in any form, so if you used the same format as the (Islam condescending) movie made in the 70’s titled ” The Message”, where Mohammed’s face was not shown at all, that might not be a total turn off to Muslims, and they may actually watch the entire film and be educated about the truth, rather than be angered at the get go just because they see a mere human portraying their beloved prophet.
Just a suggestion…