Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
A revised edition of the internationally acclaimed biography of the prophet\ • Includes important additions about the prophet’s spread of Islam into Syria and its neighboring states\ • Contains original English translations from 8th and 9th century biographies, presented in authoritative language\ • Represents the final updates made on the text before the author’s death in 2005\ Martin Lings’ biography of Muhammad is an internationally acclaimed, comprehensive, and authoritative account of...
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• This is the first paperback edition of this important work, which sold 7,500 copies in the cloth edition• The Muslim population of the U.S. is on a strong growth curve. It is estimated that there are now between 4 and 7 million Muslims in the U.S.This is the definitive, objective biography of the Prophet, drawn from primary Arabic sources of the 8th and 9th centuries, and includes passages never before translated. It owes its freshness and directness of approach to the words of the men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life.Martin Lings holds degrees from both Oxford and London University. He lectured for twelve years at Cairo University, and has served as Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Museum. He has participated in several international Islamic councils and conferences. His other works inlude three books on Islamic mysticism, The Secret of Shakespeare, Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstition, and The Koranic Arts of Calligraphy and Illumination. Parabola “For those interested in Islam . . . it is mesmerizing.”
from Chapter 15\ The First Revelations\ It was not long after this outward sign of his authority and his mission that he began to experience powerful inward signs, in addition to those of which he had already been conscious. When asked about these he spoke of “true visions” which came to him in his sleep and he said that they were “like the breaking of the light of dawn.” The immediate result of these visions was that solitude became dear to him, and he would go for spiritual retreats to a cave in Mount Hirā’ not far from the outskirts of Mecca. There was nothing in this that would have struck Quraysh as particularly strange, for retreat had been a traditional practice amongst the descendants of Ishmael, and in each generation there had been one or two who would withdraw to a solitary place from time to time so that they might have a period that was uncontaminated by the world of men. In accordance with this age-old practice, Muhammad would take with him provisions and consecrate a certain number of nights to the worship of God.\ Then he would return to his family, and sometimes on his return he took more provisions and went again to the mountain. During these few years it often happened that after he had left the town and was approaching his hermitage he would hear clearly the words “Peace be on thee, O Messenger of God,” and he would turn and look for the speaker but no one was in sight, and it was as if the words had come from a tree or a stone. Ramadan was the traditional month of retreat, and it was one night towards the end of Ramadan, in his fortieth year, when he was alone in the cave, that there came to him an Angel in the form of a man. The Angel said to him: “Recite!” and he said: “I am not a reciter,” whereupon, as he himself told it, “the Angel took me and whelmed me in his embrace until he had reached the limit of mine endurance. Then he released me and said: ‘Recite!’ I said: ‘I am not a reciter,’ and again he took me and whelmed me in his embrace, and again when he had reached the limit of mine endurance he released me and said: ‘Recite!’, and again I said ‘I am not a reciter.’ Then a third time he whelmed me as before, then released me and said:\ ‘Recite in the name of thy Lord who created!\ He createth man from a clot of blood.\ Recite; and thy Lord is the Most Bountiful,\ He who hath taught by the pen,\ taught man what he knew not.’”\ He recited these words after the Angel, who thereupon left him, and he said: “It was as though the words were written on my heart.”’ But he feared that this might mean he had become a jinn-inspired poet or a man possessed. So he fled from the cave, and when he was halfway down the slope of the mountain he heard a voice above him saying: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” He raised his eyes heavenwards and there was his visitant, still recognizable but now clearly an Angel, filling the whole horizon, and again he said: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” The Prophet stood gazing at the Angel; then he turned away from him, but whichever way he looked the Angel was always there, astride the horizon, whether it was to the north, to the south, to the east or to the west. Finally the Angel turned away, and the Prophet descended the slope and went to his house.\ “Cover me! Cover me!” he said to Khadījah as with still quaking heart he laid himself on his couch. Alarmed, yet not daring to question him, she quickly brought a cloak and spread it over him. But when the intensity of his awe had abated he told her what he had seen and heard; and having spoken to him words of reassurance, she went to tell her cousin Waraqah, who was now an old man, and blind. “Holy! Holy!,” he said. “By Him in whose hand is the soul of Waraqah, there hath come unto Muhammad the greatest Nāmūs, even he that would come unto Moses. Verily Muhammad is the Prophet of this people. Bid him rest assured.” So Khadījah went home and repeated these words to the Prophet, who now returned in peace of mind to the cave, that he might fulfill the number of days he had dedicated to God for his retreat. When this was completed, he went straight to the Ka’bah, according to his wont, and performed the rite of the rounds, after which he greeted the old and the blind Waraqah whom he had noticed amongst those who were sitting in the Mosque; and Waraqah said to him: “Tell me, O son of my brother, what thou hast seen and heard.” The Prophet told him, and the old man said again what he had said to Khadījah. But this time he added: “Thou wilt be called a liar, and ill-treated, and they will cast thee out and make war upon thee; and if I live to see that day, God knoweth I will help His cause.” Then he leaned towards him and kissed his forehead, and the Prophet returned to his home.
Muhammad His Life Based on the Earliest Sources 1 The House of God 2 A Great Loss 3 Quraysh of the Hollow 4 The Recovery of Loss 5 The Vow to Sacrifice a Son 6 The Need for a Prophet 7 The Year of The Elephant 8 The Desert 9 Two Bereavements 10 Bahira the Monk 11 A Pact of Chivalry 12 Questions of Marriage 13 The Household 14 The Rebuilding of the Ka'bah 15 The First Revelations 16 Worship 17 "Warn Thy Family" 18 Quraysh Take Action 19 Aws and Khazraj 20 Abu Jahl and Hamzah 21 Quraysh Make Offers and Demands 22 Leaders of Quraysh 23 Wonderment and Hope 24 Family Divisions 25 The Hour 26 Three Questions 27 Abyssinia 28 'Umar 29 The Ban and its Annulment 30 Paradise and Eternity 31 The Year of Sadness 32 "The Light of Thy Countenance" 33 After Years of Sadness 34 Yathrib Responsive 35 Many Emigrations 36 A Conspiracy 37 The Hijrah 38 The Entry into Medina 39 Harmony and Discord 40 The New Household 41 The Threshold of War 42 The March of Badr 43 The Battle of Badr 44 The Return of the Vanquished 45 The Captives 46 Bani Qaynuqa' 47 Deaths and Marriages 48 The People of the Bench 49 Desultory Warfare 50 Preparations for Battle 51 The March to Uhud 52 The Battle of Uhud 53 Revenge 54 The Burial of the Martyrs 55 After Uhud 56 Victims of Revenge 57 Bani Nadir 58 Peace and War 59 The Trench 60 The Siege 61 Bani Qurayzah 62 After the Siege 63 The Hypocrites 64 The Necklace 65 The Lie 66 The Dilemma of Quraysh 67 "A Clear Victory" 68 After Hudaybiyah 69 Khaybar 70 "Whom Lovest Thou Most?" 71 After Khaybar 72 The Lesser Pilgrimage and its Aftermath 73 Deaths and the Promise of Birth 74 A Breach of the Armistice 75 The Conquest of Mecca 76 The Battle of Hunayn and the Siege of Ta'if 77 Reconciliations 78 After the Victory 79 Tabuk 80 After Tabuk 81 The Degrees 82 The Future 83 The Farewell Pilgrimage 84 The Choice 85 The Succession and the Burial Map of Arabia (by Steven w. Johnson) Quraysh of the Hollow (genealogical tree) Note on Pronunciation of Arabic Names Key to References Index
\ Time Magazines of London"This work is widely recognized as the most readable account of the life of the Prophet to date."\ \ \ \ \ Times of London“This work is widely recognized as the most readable account of the life of the Prophet to date.”\ \ \ Joseph Gardner"Lings provides a wealth of detail on the life of Muhammad, the time and place of many Koranic revelations, and the foundation of Islam, all based exclusively on 8th- and 9th-century Arabic biographical sources and collections of the sayings attributed to Muhammad. General readers will find a well-written, straightforward chronological narrative; Muslim readers will appreciate the favorable treatment of Muhammad; while specialists will find a faithful and convenient rendering of source material."\ \ \ \ \ Parabola“For those interested in Islam . . . it is mesmerizing.”\ \
