Mother of the Believers

by: Kamran Pasha

<3 <3 <3 <3

Summary: Deep in the heart of seventh-century Arabia, a new prophet named Muhammad has arisen. As his message of enlightenment sweeps through Arabia and unifies the warring tribes, his young wife Aisha recounts Muhammad's astonishing transformation from prophet to warrior to statesman. But just after the moment of her husband's greatest triumph -- the conquest of the holy city of Mecca -- Muhammad falls ill and dies in Aisha's arms. A young widow, Aisha finds herself at the center of the new Muslim empire and becomes by turns a teacher, political leader, and warrior.

Review: Mother of the Believers tells the story of Aisha one of the wives of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam who was a brilliant statesman, in both the political and military arenas.  The book follows the years of her childhood and her marriage with the prophet and covers the years of the religions earliest conception and its rise to power.  Its followers faced many hardships and prejudices but would eventually rise to power through the leadership of the prophet and the strong band of faithful followers he had behind him.

Aisha's life was not one of ease filled with luxury, and riches, the prophet expected his wives to give most of their belongings to the poor and to be examples to the people, and years into the marriage his harem of wives were expected to take up the veil and be separated from any men except close male relatives and the prophet himself; which was hard for Aisha to adjust to when she was used to freedom but was something she grew accustomed to.  

Aisha goes through many  hard times as the story unfolds, and even though this was quite a large book it was not one I wanted to put down.  Learning about the different customs, beliefs, and traditions of a different religion and culture was very interesting for me, and the way in which the author wrote the story itself was lyrical and beautiful.

Aisha's life is one that women of today can look at and still relate to, in that we are all struggling to do the best that we can with the gifts that we are given, and in the time that we live and to serve our God/live out our spiritual beliefs in the best way we can through helping others.