SEERAH OF THE PROPHET(SWS)

Slides based on Seerah Series done

by Yasir Qadhi SLIDE#: SL3.2TOPIC: Why Study the Seerah? & Pre-Islamic Arabia

PART I (21:46 – 37:23)

• Where do we study the Seerah from? • Where are we getting the

information from? • What are the sources of the Seerah

of the Prophet(sws)?– 1. The Quran (the #1 source of Seerah)• The Quran references almost every major

incident in his life, even stories of before he was Prophet and even before he was born• It is the best for many reasons

– 2. The Hadith

• Why is the Quran an amazing source? – It is the language of Allah(swt)– The language is unparalleled , beautiful – It tells us the inward feelings and

emotions, not just the outward actions – It addresses the unseen, e.x. sending

angels during Badr – Issue One: One issue is that it is not

chronological – Issue Two: Also, the references aren’t

always listed

• Hadith • Each hadith refers to some part of the life of

the Prophet(sws) • Books of Seerah (the 3rd source) – Started being written by the sons of the

Sahabas – One of the greatest writers, Uruwa, the

son of a Sahaba and Sahabi –However, he had access to Aisha

because that was his aunt – Also, Abban, the son of Uthman ibn

Affan, wrote some books as well

• The earlier books we don’t have because books were combined and put together because books had to be hand written in the past

• The greatest scholar of Seerah is Mohammed Ibn Ishaq. – He was passionate about it and so he compiled a

large book and tried to make it chronological– It had so many volumes – A student (Ibn Hisham) since he realized the

work of Ibn Ishaq was so long, he condensed it by cutting stuff out

• We are big on compiling the narrators so we know where the information is coming from

• Ibn Hisham realized that it was too much to write that much, so he shortened it

• Ibn Ishaq was one of the first to write a history from the beginning of time. Ibn Hisham thought, no, lets just focus on the Prophet so he took out the written part of the earlier history.

• Now, Ibn Ishaq is no longer available – Some manuscripts may be around the

world, now under different people/countries, etc.

Questions1. Describe the 3 sources explained

from where we get information about the Seerah.

2. What are two issues with the Quran in terms of getting information about the Seerah?

3. Pick one Islamic scholar who wrote about the Seerah and describe their role.

PART II (37:24 – 51:46)

• Ibn Hisham took out lineages but he did keep the original source (the books of Ibn Ishaq) intact

• 4th Source of the Seerah: the books written about the characteristics of the Prophet(sws). Shama’il (the characteristics/ specialities).

• 5th Source of the Seerah: books written about the miracles of the Prophet (sws). Dala’il (miracles- books). Can extract seerah from these types of books.

• 6th Source: books w/ histories of the Sahabas• 7th Source: books about the histories of Makkah

and Medina• 8th Source: books about Islam and its history

written by the outside world (this is new)

• Pre-Islamic Arabia:–Who were the Arabs? Topic of ethnicity

and genealogy – Ibn Ishaq started this type of study– A lot of Arabs now don’t trace back to

the Arabs of that time. So the Arab ethnicity is not what it used to be.

• Scholars have created two categories of Arabs:

• 1. Al-Arab al Bayida Extinct Arabs the earliest peoples that lived in Arabia. The Quran mentioned some like the Ad and the Thamud. They have nothing to do with the later Arabs. Thamud is the earliest humanity living in Arabia. These people fled from Babel ( the earliest cities).

• 2. Al Arab al Bakiya the Arabs that remain. There are two categories of this as well: – A) Qahtan: the father of the Arab. His son was Yahrab.

His name became the basis of Arab. These are called the Qahtan Arabs. Not sure who they are. Majority opinion is that he is descendants of Sam (Nuh(a)’s son). They (Qahtanis) lived in Southern Arabia. (The Aws and the Khajraj in Madina were Qahtani).

– B) Adnan

Questions1. Describe the 4 sources of seerah

mentioned in this segment. 2. What are the two categories of the

Arabs? Explain the difference.3. What are the two categories of the

Al-Arab al Bakiya?4. Describe the Qahtan.

The complete lecture can be found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F5qzMI2IKs