【hanna】

i was pretty excited to read this book, because i've heard a lot about it it- and a lot of it is factually correct, very insightful and humanises the prophet saw, increasing love and respect for him because of all he suffered for our ummah. however, there's definitely an element of bias when she's writing about specific events, such as the jewish tribes in medinah. there's way too much speculation and assumption in it to be a wholly historical biography- her own insights, though occasionally interesting, are often unnecessary and insensitive. if you're a muslim wanting to read this book, i suggest skipping over the chapters that cover isra and miraaj as well as the chapters that talk about banu nadir, banu qaynuqa and banu qurayza. and skip over the page where she talks about the veil, because she's sadly misinformed and portrays it almost as a type of cultural oppression.