The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad

Lesley Hazleton

Mar 2017 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Deepti Gupta

About this audiobook

Muhammad's was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance; yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality. Hazleton's account follows the arc of Muhammad's rise from powerlessness to power, from anonymity to renown, from insignificance to lasting significance. How did a child shunted to the margins end up revolutionizing his world? How did a merchant come to challenge the established order with a new vision of social justice? How did the pariah hounded out of Mecca turn exile into a new and victorious beginning? How did the outsider become the ultimate insider? Impeccably researched, Hazleton's narrative creates vivid insight into a man navigating between idealism and pragmatism, faith and politics, nonviolence and violence, rejection and acclaim. The First Muslim illuminates not only an immensely significant figure but his lastingly relevant legacy.

Ratings and reviews

One of the best female authors describing the Best Human being ever lived is a charm

was a very interesting book, well written and narrated

About the author

Lesley Hazleton is the award-winning author of several books, including After the Prophet and Mary. A former psychologist, she reported on the Middle East from Jerusalem for more than a dozen years, writing for Time, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the Nation, and Harper's, among other publications.

Fluent in Hindi, Urdu, and English, actress Deepti Gupta has an international career spread across India, Singapore, Pakistan, and the United States. She has earned praise from the New York Times for her performance in the feature film Walkaway, and also stars in Record/Play, a 2013 Sundance Film Festival selection.