The Prophet Muhammad is a hero for all mankind. In his lifetime he established a new religion, Islam; a new state, the first united Arabia; and a new literary language - the classical Arabic of the Qur'an, for the Qur'an is believed to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel. A generation after his death he would be acknowledged as the founder of a world empire and a new civilisation.
Any of these achievements would be more than enough to permanently establish his genius. To our twenty-first century minds what is all the more astonishing is that he also managed to stay true to himself and retained to his last days the humility, courtesy and humanity that he had learned as an orphan shepherd boy in central Arabia. If one looks for a parallel example from Christendom, one would have to combine the Emperor Constantine with St Francis and St Paul.
In a world where the understanding of religions is ever more essential, Barnaby Rogerson's book could not be better timed.
