Muhammad ― Forty Introductions

He is one of the most contested and explosive historical figures in the world. Muhammad: Forty Introductions offers a distinct and nuanced take on the life and teachings of Muhammad the prophet, using a traditional genre of Islamic literature called the forty hadiths collection.

Hadiths are the reported sayings and actions of Muhammad that have been collected by the tens of thousands throughout Islamic history. There is a tradition in which Muslim scholars take from this vast textual ocean to compile their own smaller collections of forty hadiths, an act of curation that allows them to present their particular understanding of Muhammad’s legacy and the essential points of Islam.

Here, Michael Muhammad Knight contributes his own forty hadith collection, from his point of view as a convert to Islam, ex-punk-rocker-turned-academic, who understands the religion for its heterogeneity and changeability. He examines his own faith while exploring such topics as visual portrayals of Muhammad through history; Muhammad’s views on homosexuality and the treatment of animals; the evolving definition of jihad; and Muhammad’s family’s history as migrants and refugees. By showing us how the religion has been constructed in its followers’ imaginations over centuries, and revealing how all sacred biographies are contested spaces, he carefully unravels prevailing notions about Islamic “fundamentalism.”