In muhammad and the believers the eminent historian fred donner offers a lucid and original vision of how islam first evolved he argues that the origins of islam lie in what we may call the believers movement begun by the prophet muhammad a movement of religious reform emphasizing strict monotheism and righteous behavior in conformity with gods revealed law the believers movement thus included righteous christians and jews in its early years because like the quranic . The roots of the religion of islam are to be found in the career of a man named muhammad ibn abd allah who was born in mecca a town in western arabia in the latter part of the sixth century ce arabia at this time was not an isolated place it was rather part of a much wider cultural world that embraced the lands of the near east and the eastern mediterranean for this reason to understand the setting in which muhammad lived and worked and the meaning of the religious movement he . In muhammad and the believers at the origins of islam donner takes a fresh look at the heart and soul of islamic history joseph richard previllesaudi gazette 06 21 2010 this is an invaluable book not only does it provide a sane and lucid guide to the origins of islam a topic that is currently more mired in controversy than any other in the entire field of ancient history but it is . In muhammad and the believers at the origins of islam donner argues that the religion we now know as islam emerged gradually over a number of decades and that its final form differed in many ways from muhammads initial message