Introduction When was the last time you received a hand-written letter? How did you feel when it arrived? In today's world we are used to communicating within split seconds and can speak to people on the other side of the world at the tap of a screen. The world was not always this way, however. Before the technology of today, the most important messages between people living in different cities or countries had to be in letters. But there was no neighbourhood postman or delivery companies. Before a postal service, these letters often had to be sent with people who would travel across huge distances of desert, seas and vast landscapes to deliver them by hand. The journey was often treacherous, and the messengers could takes weeks or even months to arrive to their destination. They had no idea how they would be received, often didn't know anybody in the place they were visiting and would be encountering cultures, languages and societies completely different to their own. Because it was such hard work to send a letter, people would only do so when they had something very important they wanted to communicate.

Communicating an important message is exactly what this book is about. We will be looking at a series of 4 letters sent by the Prophet Muhammad to leaders of some of the most powerful men on earth. Sent with messengers to palaces extremely far away, these letters were an invitation to Islam for people who were living a very different way of life. We will be looking at each letter in detail, the different reactions people had to them and the fascinating course of events they triggered afterwards. Come and join us as open up some Letters from a Prophet.