The Poet and the Prophet

In 2002, nearly 70 years after its completion, a long essay by the celebrated Iraqi poet Maaruf Rusafi on the nature of prophecy in Islam was published in Germany. His reading of early Islamic history, in particular of the accomplishments of the Prophet Muhammad, roughly coincided with another new reading; that by the Egyptian Ali Abd al-Raziq. Rusafi’s admiration for Muhammad is enormous and he credits him with inspiring the Arabs to initiate a new order, taking humanity from the reign of tribal customs to the vision of communities built on shared ethics and beliefs