Dr. ‘Ali Muhammad As-Sallaabee Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 2025 | Size: 44 MB
In this book, the events of the Prophet’s
life, from the day he (S) was born and even before that day for
background information-until the day he (S) died, have been recorded.
Beyond enumerating the events of the
Prophet’s life, lessons and morals from those events have been drawn to
point out the significance of an event and the wisdom behind the
Prophet’s actions or deeds, the Islamic ruling that is derived from a
particular incident, and the impact that a given event should have on
our character or choice of deeds is indicated.
Male or female, adult or child, scholar
or commoner, businessman or laborer – all Muslims need to study the
biography of the Messenger of Allah. In fact, the fulfillment of many of
our Islamic duties hinges upon our knowledge of the Prophet’s life. For
example, every Muslim should love the Prophet (S) yet how can one love
him without knowing him. We were not alive when the Prophet (S) was
preaching the message of Islam to the Quraish, so the only way we have
left to become intimately acquainted with the Prophet (S) and
consequently to love him, is to study his sayings and deeds, which give
us partial glimpses of his life, or to study his biography, which fits
the pieces of his life together, so that we can have an overall view of
his ideal character. And how are we to follow the Prophet (S) if we do
not know his sayings and deeds, or – which is more relevant to his
biography – the context in which his sayings and deeds occurred. Thus we
are all in dire need of acquainting ourselves with the life of the
Prophet (S)
Through the study of the Seerah (the
Prophet’s biography), we are able to appreciate how the Prophet (S) was
an ideal husband, ideal father, ideal leader, ideal ruler, ideal
educator, ideal judge, and so on. So regardless of our situation and who
we are, we benefit from studying the Prophet’s life. If one has
dedicated at least some part of his life to inviting others to Islam
(which makes him a Daa’ee – a word I will henceforward use one who
invites others to the teachings of Islam), then the Prophet’s biography
is for him an indispensable guidebook. Through studying the Prophet’s
Seerah, the Daa’ee learns about the Prophet’s methodology for inviting
others to Islam; furthermore, he learns about how the Prophet (S) dealt
with those who refused to embrace Islam and how he ;t”,’ was patient
when he was made to suffer at their hands, not to mention the countless
other lessons and morals he learns from the Seerah.
If one is an educator – of children at
home or school, or of adults at a community level – one learns how the
best educator mankind has ever known raised a generation of true
Muslims, who went on to develop the most wonderful civilization that
mankind has ever known. The early converts to Islam were educated in the
world’s finest institution of higher learning – the House of Al-Arqam
(the house wherein Muslims secretly met in the early days of Islam) –
where the Prophet (S) taught them the Qur’an, Islamic beliefs, the
manners of Islam, and so on. His students graduated with flying colors,
becoming leaders and educators of the following generation of Muslims.
If one is a leader, one learns true
qualities of leadership from the Prophet’s Seerah, in terms of how the
Prophet (S) was just; how he united the Muslims; how he (S) dealt with
subversive elements of society, namely the hypocrites, who were headed
by ‘Abdullah ibn Ubai ibn Salool; and how he (S) constantly strove for
the betterment of the Muslim nation.
If one is a scholar, one relies on the
Seerah to understand the Qur’an, for the Prophet’s actions represent a
practical application of the teachings of the Qur’an. Furthermore, the
revelation of many Verses was prompted by actual events that took place
during the Prophet’s lifetime; a scholar can only understand such Verses
if he understands the events for which they were revealed. And in fact
(as we will In Sha Allah see throughout this book) knowledge of all
Islamic sciences – such as ‘Aqeedah (beliefs), jurisprudence, and
Tafseer – hinges frequently upon knowledge of some aspect of the
Prophet’s Seerah.
If a Muslim inclines towards Zuhd (to
abstain from worldly pleasures for the sake of Allah) he can learn,
through the study of the Seerah, the difference between true Zuhd and
extremism, for the correct way to live is the balanced life that the
Prophet (S) and his Companions led. If a Muslim is afflicted by
calamity, he can find consolation in the Seerah, for no one was
afflicted with as much hardship as was the Messenger of Allah; beyond
consolation, the afflicted person becomes encouraged to follow the
example of the Prophet; and patiently await for his reward from Allah .
In short, there are valuable lessons to be found in the Seerah for every
single Muslim.
Not just the Muslim individual, but also
the Muslim nation as a whole needs to benefit from the lessons that are
available in the Prophet’s Seerah. Nations rise and fall not through
coincidence or through a set of arbitrary occurrences, but through
universal laws that have been set in place by Allah . At least once in
our history, Muslims have succeeded in building a wonderful and stable
civilization, and that was during the lifetime of the Prophetand his
rightly guided Caliphs; and even if Muslims prospered in later
centuries, they never prospered as much as they did in the early golden
years of Islam. Now we come back to the universal laws I mentioned
above: The Prophet , and his Companions established a stable and
prosperous nation not by chance, but by living in harmony with the said
universal laws. What this means is that there is a pattern: If we want
to now repeat the success that was achieved by the Muslims during the
lifetime of the Prophet Oh, we need to be in harmony with the same set
of laws, and in doing so, we have an ideal blueprint to follow – the
lives of the Prophet (S) and his noble Companions (R).
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