The important role of the Prophet Muhammad in the everyday lives of Muslims is usually overlooked by Western scholars and has consequently never been understood by the Western world. Using original sources in the various Islamic languages, Annemarie Schimmel explains the central place of Muhammad in Muslim life, mystical thought, and poetry. She sees the veneration of Muhammad as having many parallels in other major religions. In order to understand Muslim piety it is necessary to take into account the long history of the veneration of Muhammad. Schimmel discusses aspects of his life, birth, marriage, miracles, and heavenly journey, all of which became subjects for religious devotions. By using poetic texts and artistic expressions and by examining daily Muslim religious practices, Schimmel shows us the gentler side of Islamic religious culture, providing a much-needed understanding of religion as it is experienced and practiced in the Islamic world. This is the first book in English to deal with all aspects of the veneration of the Prophet Muhammad. It is an expanded version of Schimmel's Und Muhammad Ist Sein Prophet, originally published in German in 1981.

This book narrates the life of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, shedding light upon segments of his life that are either neglected or glossed over in conflict-focused biographies. The narrations in this book revolve around the Prophet's various strategies of diplomacy and reconciliation to avoid conflicts. In narrating these events, the book helps the readers broaden their perspective on the life of the Messenger of God and better capture the ethos of his life. Indeed, both Muslims and non-Muslims may benefit from this understanding at a time when violent extremist groups such as ISIS are causing carnage with their brutality while dressing their totalitarian ideologies in Muslim garb. The book exposes the hypocritical and willful deception of these radical groups which cherry-pick incidents and sayings from the Prophet's life, decontextualize them, and abuse them to serve their perverted ideologies. The extensive evidence presented in this book will not only dispel many myths about the life and message of the Noble Prophet, but also show how through compassionate efforts he conquered the hearts of people around him and turned them from die-hard enemies to devoted faithful friends.

Adil writes of the Holy Prophet and how he prayed for mercy upon his enemies. Despite the fact that they did him such harm and caused him so much hurt, he would not curse them, for all prophets' curses instantly take effect.

This book talks about the life story of Muhammad, may Allah exalt his mention, and his beautiful manners. It also brings to light statements for contemporary figures in Western society, who spoke favorably of Prophet Muhammad, may Allah exalt his mention.

Drawing on traditional Muslim sources, Michael Cook describes Muhammad's life and teaching. He also attempts to stand back from this traditional picture to show how far it is historically justified.

Annemarie Schimmel, one of the world's foremost authorities on Persian literature, provides a comprehensive introduction to the complicated and highly sophisticated system of rhetoric and imagery used by the poets of Iran, Ottoman Turkey, and Muslim India. She shows that these images have been used and refined over the centuries and reflect the changing conditions in the Muslim world. According to Schimmel, Persian poetry does not aim to be spontaneous in spirit or highly personal in form. Instead it is rooted in conventions and rules of prosody, rhymes, and verbal instrumentation. Ideally, every verse should be like a precious stone--perfectly formed and multifaceted--and convey the dynamic relationship between everyday reality and the transcendental. Persian poetry, Schimmel explains, is more similar to medieval European verse than Western poetry as it has been written since the Romantic period. The characteristic verse form is the ghazal--a set of rhyming couplets--which serves as a vehicle for shrouding in conventional tropes the poet's real intentions. Because Persian poetry is neither narrative nor dramatic in its overall form, its strength lies in an "architectonic" design; each precisely expressed image is carefully fitted into a pattern of linked figures of speech. Schimmel shows that at its heart Persian poetry transforms the world into a web of symbols embedded in Islamic culture.