English Grammar: Learn Arabic

Thursday, 11 October 2012

Learn Arabic

To write a history of the life of Muhammad poses problems for the modern Muslim, as a history of Jesus does for Christians. It is not easy to remain faithful both to objective history and the demands of faith. Moreover, for the Muslim today there exists an additional tension. His growing respect for western science and objectivity is accompanied by his rejection of western cultural imperialism (al-isli'mar ai-ikaqti.fi) and an effort to identify even more closely than ever before with the cultural tradition and heritage of the Islamic East. The first serious effort by a modern Arab Muslim to achieve an acceptable balance between these two compelling attractions was Haykal's Hayat Muhammad.

For a Muslim audience at least, that effort seems to have met with considerable success, if one can judge by the book's popularity. The ten editions to date total nearly 100,000 copies and represent a record for publications of this kind in the Arab world. Moreover, Haykal's book is still used as a text in Egyptian public schools, and the Muslim Hollywood producer, Mustafa al-'Aqqad, has used it as the historical outline of his three-hour multi-million dollar epic film on the life and teaching of Muhammad.