The life of the Beloved ﷺ

السِّيرَةُ النَّبَوِيَّة

As-Sīrah an-Nabawiyyah

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ

From the lineage the Arabs recited by heart to the morning he ﷺ was taken — 58 moments in 8 chapters, in the order they happened, in Arabic and English, each one named to the classical work it is taken from.

The chapters الْفُهْرِس

مِنْ أَسْمَائِهِ ﷺ Some of his blessed names ﷺ

  • مُحَمَّد Muḥammad The much-praised
  • أَحْمَد Aḥmad The most praising of his Lord
  • الْمَاحِي al-Māḥī By whom disbelief is effaced
  • الْحَاشِر al-Ḥāshir At whose feet people are gathered
  • الْعَاقِب al-ʿĀqib After whom there is no prophet
  • الْمُصْطَفَى al-Muṣṭafā The chosen one
  • الْحَبِيب al-Ḥabīb The beloved of Allah
  • طه Ṭā Hā As the Qur’an addresses him
  • يس Yā Sīn As the Qur’an addresses him
  • الشَّاهِد ash-Shāhid The witness
  • السِّرَاجُ الْمُنِير as-Sirāj al-Munīr The lamp that gives light
  • رَحْمَةٌ لِلْعَالَمِين Raḥmatun li-l-ʿĀlamīn A mercy to the worlds

The whole life, in order السِّيرَةُ عَلَى تَرْتِيبِهَا

Chapter 1 قَبْلَ الْبِعْثَة

Before the message

The Year of the Elephant to his fortieth year

Forty years in Makkah before a word of the Qur’an was revealed — a lineage the Arabs could recite by heart, an orphan, a shepherd, a merchant, and a man the whole city had already agreed to call trustworthy.

  1. His lineage ﷺ

    النَّسَبُ الشَّرِيف
    The line every sīrah opens with

    Muḥammad, son of ʿAbdullāh, son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, son of Hāshim, son of ʿAbd Manāf, son of Quṣayy — of Quraysh, of Kinānah, of the seed of Ismāʿīl, son of Sayyidinā Ibrāhīm عليهما السلام. The Arabs kept lineage the way other nations keep archives, and his ﷺ is the one line among them on which no two of them ever disagreed.

    هُوَ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الْمُطَّلِبِ بْنِ هَاشِمِ بْنِ عَبْدِ مَنَافٍ، مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ، مِنْ وَلَدِ إِسْمَاعِيلَ بْنِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَلَيْهِمَا السَّلَام.

    إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَى كِنَانَةَ مِنْ وَلَدِ إِسْمَاعِيلَ، وَاصْطَفَى قُرَيْشًا مِنْ كِنَانَةَ، وَاصْطَفَى مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ بَنِي هَاشِمٍ، وَاصْطَفَانِي مِنْ بَنِي هَاشِمٍ

    Allah chose Kinānah from the children of Ismāʿīl, and chose Quraysh from Kinānah, and chose the house of Hāshim from Quraysh, and chose me from the house of Hāshim.

    The Prophet ﷺ
    Sahih Muslim 2276

    Ibn Hishām · al-Qasṭallānī, al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyyah

  2. The Year of the Elephant

    عَامُ الْفِيل
    c. 570 CE

    Abrahah came up from Yemen with an army and an elephant to pull down the Kaʿbah. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib went out to meet him and asked only for his own camels back; the House, he said, has a Lord who will defend it. The army never reached it. Makkah dated the year by it, and he ﷺ was born in it — the House cleared for him before he came.

    أَقْبَلَ أَبْرَهَةُ مِنَ الْيَمَنِ بِالْفِيلِ يُرِيدُ هَدْمَ الْكَعْبَةِ، فَقَالَ عَبْدُ الْمُطَّلِبِ: لِلْبَيْتِ رَبٌّ يَحْمِيهِ. فَرَدَّهُمُ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ، وَوُلِدَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ فِي ذَلِكَ الْعَام.

    Al-Fil 105:1-5

    Ibn Isḥāq · al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil an-Nubuwwah

  3. His blessed birth ﷺ

    الْمَوْلِدُ الشَّرِيف
    Monday, Rabīʿ al-Awwal

    He ﷺ was born in Makkah on a Monday in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, into the clan of Hāshim. His father ʿAbdullāh had died before he was born. His mother Sayyidatunā Āminah said she carried him with no weight in it, and saw a light go out from her by which the castles of Syria were lit. His grandfather carried him into the Kaʿbah, gave thanks, and named him Muḥammad — a name the Arabs scarcely used — hoping, he said, that the earth would praise him as heaven did.

    وُلِدَ ﷺ بِمَكَّةَ يَوْمَ الِاثْنَيْنِ فِي شَهْرِ رَبِيعٍ الْأَوَّلِ، وَقَدْ تُوُفِّيَ أَبُوهُ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ قَبْلَ مَوْلِدِهِ. وَسَمَّاهُ جَدُّهُ عَبْدُ الْمُطَّلِبِ مُحَمَّدًا، رَجَاءَ أَنْ يَحْمَدَهُ أَهْلُ الْأَرْضِ كَمَا حَمِدَهُ أَهْلُ السَّمَاء.

    ذَاكَ يَوْمٌ وُلِدْتُ فِيهِ، وَيَوْمٌ بُعِثْتُ فِيه

    That is the day I was born, and the day I was sent.

    The Prophet ﷺ, asked why he fasted on Mondays

    Ibn Saʿd, aṭ-Ṭabaqāt · Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, ash-Shifāʾ

  4. The years with Sayyidatunā Ḥalīmah

    فِي بَنِي سَعْد
    His first four years

    Makkan families sent their infants to the desert to be nursed, for the air and for the Arabic. Ḥalīmah as-Saʿdiyyah took him ﷺ when no one else would — her household poor, her milk thin, her donkey the slowest in the caravan. From the day she took him her breast filled, her flock came home fat while the others came home empty, and the same donkey outran the party that had left her behind. He grew up among the Banū Saʿd, in the cleanest Arabic in the peninsula.

    أَرْضَعَتْهُ ﷺ حَلِيمَةُ السَّعْدِيَّةُ فِي بَنِي سَعْدٍ، فَنَزَلَتِ الْبَرَكَةُ بِبَيْتِهَا مُنْذُ أَخَذَتْهُ، وَنَشَأَ فِي أَفْصَحِ الْعَرَبِ لِسَانًا.

    Ibn Isḥāq · Ibn Saʿd, aṭ-Ṭabaqāt

  5. The opening of his breast

    شَقُّ الصَّدْر
    While he was with the Banū Saʿd

    He ﷺ was playing with the other boys when two came to him, laid him down, opened his breast, took something out of his heart and said: this was the devil’s share in you. They washed his heart in a golden basin with the water of Zamzam, put it back, and sealed him. Anas رضي الله عنه said he could still see the mark of the stitching on his chest years afterwards.

    أَتَاهُ جِبْرِيلُ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ وَهُوَ يَلْعَبُ مَعَ الْغِلْمَانِ، فَشَقَّ صَدْرَهُ وَاسْتَخْرَجَ مِنْهُ عَلَقَةً وَقَالَ: هَذَا حَظُّ الشَّيْطَانِ مِنْكَ، ثُمَّ غَسَلَ قَلْبَهُ بِمَاءِ زَمْزَمَ فِي طَسْتٍ مِنْ ذَهَب.

    Sahih Muslim 421

    Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim · Ibn Hishām

  6. Twice orphaned

    الْيُتْم
    His sixth and eighth years

    Sayyidatunā Āminah died at al-Abwāʾ, on the road back from visiting her husband’s grave. He ﷺ was six. His grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib took him and loved him openly — seating him on the mat by the Kaʿbah that no one else was allowed to touch — and died two years later. His uncle Abū Ṭālib took him then, and kept him for forty years: poor, and never once willing to hand him over.

    تُوُفِّيَتْ أُمُّهُ آمِنَةُ بِالْأَبْوَاءِ وَلَهُ سِتُّ سِنِينَ، ثُمَّ كَفَلَهُ جَدُّهُ عَبْدُ الْمُطَّلِبِ، ثُمَّ عَمُّهُ أَبُو طَالِبٍ، فَأَحْسَنَ كَفَالَتَهُ وَمَنَعَهُ مِنْ قَوْمِه.

    Ad-Duhaa 93:6-8

    Ibn Hishām · as-Suhaylī, ar-Rawḍ al-Unuf

  7. The monk at Buṣrā

    بَحِيرَى الرَّاهِب
    His twelfth year

    Abū Ṭālib took him on a trading journey into Syria. At Buṣrā a monk called Baḥīrā came out to a caravan he had watched for years and never once greeted, because this time a cloud had shaded one boy in it and a tree had bent its branches over him. He asked the boy questions, looked at the seal between his shoulders, and told his uncle to take him home and guard him: the People of the Book know the signs, and they will not leave him alone if they see what I have seen.

    خَرَجَ مَعَ عَمِّهِ أَبِي طَالِبٍ إِلَى الشَّامِ، فَرَآهُ بَحِيرَى الرَّاهِبُ بِبُصْرَى وَعَرَفَ عَلَامَاتِ النُّبُوَّةِ فِيهِ، وَأَمَرَ عَمَّهُ أَنْ يَرْجِعَ بِهِ وَيَحْفَظَهُ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَاب.

    Ibn Isḥāq · at-Tirmidhī

  8. The pact of the virtuous

    حِلْفُ الْفُضُول
    His twentieth year

    A man from Zabīd sold goods to a Makkan chief who then refused to pay, and no clan would take a stranger’s side against one of their own. The houses of Quraysh gathered in the house of ʿAbdullāh ibn Judʿān and swore that as long as they lived they would stand with the wronged against the wronger, whoever he was. The goods were returned that day. He ﷺ was present at the oath, and said long afterwards that he would answer it still if he were called to it in Islam.

    شَهِدَ ﷺ حِلْفَ الْفُضُولِ فِي دَارِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ جُدْعَانَ، تَعَاقَدُوا فِيهِ عَلَى نَصْرِ الْمَظْلُومِ، وَقَالَ بَعْدَ الْإِسْلَامِ: لَوْ دُعِيتُ بِهِ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ لَأَجَبْت.

    لَقَدْ شَهِدْتُ حِلْفًا مَا أُحِبُّ أَنَّ لِي بِهِ حُمْرَ النَّعَمِ، وَلَوْ أُدْعَى بِهِ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ لَأَجَبْت

    I was present at a pact I would not exchange for the finest red camels — and were I called to it in Islam I would answer.

    The Prophet ﷺ

    Ibn Hishām · al-Bayhaqī, as-Sunan al-Kubrā

  9. The one they called trustworthy

    الْأَمِين
    His youth

    He ﷺ herded sheep — as, he said, every prophet did — then traded, and Makkah, a city of hard bargains and long feuds, settled on a name for him before he had ever claimed anything: al-Amīn, the trustworthy. Men who would later drive him out of the city still left their valuables with him for safekeeping, and on the night he left it he stayed behind long enough to have every one of them returned.

    رَعَى الْغَنَمَ ثُمَّ تَاجَرَ، وَسَمَّتْهُ قُرَيْشٌ الْأَمِينَ قَبْلَ النُّبُوَّةِ، وَكَانُوا يُودِعُونَهُ أَمْوَالَهُمْ، فَرَدَّهَا كُلَّهَا لَيْلَةَ خُرُوجِهِ مِنْ مَكَّة.

    Ibn Hishām · Ibn Sayyid an-Nās, ʿUyūn al-Athar

  10. Sayyidatunā Khadījah رضي الله عنها

    زَوَاجُهُ بِخَدِيجَة
    His twenty-fifth year

    Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, a merchant of standing in Makkah, sent him ﷺ north with her goods and had back both a profit and an account of him from her servant Maysarah. She proposed. He was twenty-five and she was forty, and for the twenty-five years she lived he married no one else. Every one of his children but Ibrāhīm was hers. Years after her death he still sent meat to her friends, and said plainly that he had never been given better.

    تَزَوَّجَ خَدِيجَةَ بِنْتَ خُوَيْلِدٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا وَهُوَ ابْنُ خَمْسٍ وَعِشْرِينَ سَنَةً، فَلَمْ يَتَزَوَّجْ عَلَيْهَا حَتَّى مَاتَتْ، وَمِنْهَا وَلَدُهُ كُلُّهُمْ إِلَّا إِبْرَاهِيم.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 3818

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Saʿd

  11. The Black Stone, and a cloak

    بِنَاءُ الْكَعْبَة
    His thirty-fifth year

    Quraysh rebuilt the Kaʿbah and then nearly went to war over which clan would set the Black Stone. They had already drawn their oaths when the oldest man there proposed leaving it to the next man through the gate. It was him ﷺ, and they said: it is al-Amīn, we are content. He spread his cloak, laid the stone in the middle of it, told each chief to take an edge, and when they had raised it together he set it in place with his own hands.

    لَمَّا بَنَتْ قُرَيْشٌ الْكَعْبَةَ اخْتَلَفُوا فِيمَنْ يَضَعُ الْحَجَرَ الْأَسْوَدَ، فَحَكَّمُوا أَوَّلَ دَاخِلٍ، فَكَانَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ، فَبَسَطَ رِدَاءَهُ وَوَضَعَ الْحَجَرَ فِيهِ، وَأَمَرَ سَادَاتِ الْقَبَائِلِ أَنْ يَرْفَعُوهُ جَمِيعًا، ثُمَّ وَضَعَهُ بِيَدِهِ الشَّرِيفَة.

    Ibn Hishām · Aḥmad, al-Musnad

  12. The cave on Ḥirāʾ

    التَّحَنُّثُ فِي حِرَاء
    His late thirties

    Solitude was made beloved to him. He ﷺ would take provision up to a cave on the mountain of Ḥirāʾ and stay there nights on end in worship before coming back for more and going up again. Nothing in Makkah taught him this; there was no one there to learn it from. It was the last thing before the first thing.

    حُبِّبَ إِلَيْهِ الْخَلَاءُ، فَكَانَ يَخْلُو بِغَارِ حِرَاءٍ فَيَتَحَنَّثُ فِيهِ اللَّيَالِيَ ذَوَاتِ الْعَدَدِ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَرْجِعَ إِلَى أَهْلِه.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 3

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, the first ḥadīth of the book

Read “Before the message” on its own

Chapter 2 بَدْءُ الْوَحْي

The beginning of revelation

His fortieth year, and the three after it

Read. One word in a cave above Makkah, and everything after it follows from it — a wife who believed him before he had finished speaking, a handful who followed, and a city that turned.

  1. Read

    اقْرَأْ
    Ramaḍān, his fortieth year

    The angel came to him ﷺ in the cave and said: Read. He said, I am not a reader. The angel took him and pressed him until he could bear no more, released him, and said it again. Three times. Then: Read, in the name of your Lord who created. He came down the mountain with his heart shaking and the words with him — the first five verses of al-ʿAlaq, and the first of the Qur’an to be revealed.

    جَاءَهُ الْمَلَكُ فِي الْغَارِ فَقَالَ: اقْرَأْ. قَالَ: مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ. فَغَطَّهُ حَتَّى بَلَغَ مِنْهُ الْجَهْدَ ثَلَاثًا، ثُمَّ قَالَ: اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَق.

    اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ • خَلَقَ الْإِنْسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ • اقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ • الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ • عَلَّمَ الْإِنْسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ

    Read, in the name of your Lord who created — created man from a clinging clot. Read, and your Lord is the most generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.

    Sūrat al-ʿAlaq 96:1–5
    Al-Alaq 96:1-5Sahih al-Bukhari 3

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām

  2. Never — by Allah

    كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ
    The same morning

    He came home trembling and said: cover me, cover me. When the fear had left him he told Khadījah رضي الله عنها what had happened and said, I fear for myself. She answered before he had finished: never, by Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep the ties of kin, you carry the burden of the weak, you give to the destitute, you honour the guest, and you help against the calamities of truth. She was the first of this Ummah to believe, and she believed on the strength of his character alone.

    رَجَعَ يَرْجُفُ فُؤَادُهُ فَقَالَ: زَمِّلُونِي زَمِّلُونِي. فَقَالَتْ خَدِيجَةُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا: كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ لَا يُخْزِيكَ اللَّهُ أَبَدًا، إِنَّكَ لَتَصِلُ الرَّحِمَ، وَتَحْمِلُ الْكَلَّ، وَتَقْرِي الضَّيْفَ، وَتُعِينُ عَلَى نَوَائِبِ الْحَقّ.

    كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ لَا يُخْزِيكَ اللَّهُ أَبَدًا

    Never — by Allah, Allah will never disgrace you.

    Sayyidatunā Khadījah رضي الله عنها
    Sahih al-Bukhari 3

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

  3. Waraqah ibn Nawfal

    وَرَقَةُ بْنُ نَوْفَل
    Days after

    Khadījah رضي الله عنها took him to her cousin Waraqah, an old man gone blind who read the scriptures. Waraqah heard the account and said: this is the Nāmūs that came down to Mūsā. I wish I were young; I wish I were alive when your people drive you out. He ﷺ said: will they drive me out? Waraqah said: no man has ever brought what you bring and not been fought. He died soon after, and the revelation paused.

    ذَهَبَتْ بِهِ خَدِيجَةُ إِلَى وَرَقَةَ بْنِ نَوْفَلٍ، فَقَالَ: هَذَا النَّامُوسُ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ اللَّهُ عَلَى مُوسَى، لَيْتَنِي أَكُونُ حَيًّا إِذْ يُخْرِجُكَ قَوْمُك.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 3

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

  4. Rise and warn

    يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّر
    After the pause

    The revelation stopped, and the silence was heavier than the fear had been. It broke while he ﷺ was walking: he heard a voice from the sky, looked up, saw the angel he had seen on Ḥirāʾ seated between heaven and earth, and came home saying, cover me. And it came down: O you wrapped in your cloak, rise and warn. From that day it did not stop again until the religion was complete.

    ثُمَّ فَتَرَ الْوَحْيُ، فَبَيْنَا هُوَ يَمْشِي إِذْ رَأَى الْمَلَكَ بَيْنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ، فَرَجَعَ فَقَالَ: دَثِّرُونِي. فَأَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ: يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ قُمْ فَأَنْذِر.

    Al-Muddaththir 74:1-5

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

  5. The first to answer

    السَّابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُون
    The first three years

    Khadījah رضي الله عنها first, then ʿAlī, a boy of ten in his own house, then Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, whom he had freed and who had chosen him over his own father, then Abū Bakr, who took no time to think about it and brought five more men with him within days. Bilāl, Khabbāb, Ṣuhayb, ʿAmmār and Sumayyah رضي الله عنهم came from among the enslaved and the unprotected — which is who bore the worst of what followed.

    أَوَّلُ مَنْ آمَنَ بِهِ خَدِيجَةُ، ثُمَّ عَلِيٌّ وَهُوَ غُلَامٌ، ثُمَّ زَيْدُ بْنُ حَارِثَةَ، ثُمَّ أَبُو بَكْرٍ الصِّدِّيقُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ، وَأَسْلَمَ عَلَى يَدَيْهِ خَلْقٌ مِنَ الْمُسْتَضْعَفِين.

    Ibn Isḥāq · Ibn Saʿd

  6. On the hill of Ṣafā

    عَلَى الصَّفَا
    The fourth year of the message

    He ﷺ was told to warn his nearest kin, and he climbed Ṣafā and called the clans of Quraysh by name until they gathered. He said: if I told you there was cavalry behind this hill about to attack you, would you believe me? They said: yes — we have never known you to lie. He said: then I am a warner to you before a severe punishment.

    صَعِدَ الصَّفَا وَنَادَى بُطُونَ قُرَيْشٍ، ثُمَّ قَالَ: أَرَأَيْتَكُمْ لَوْ أَخْبَرْتُكُمْ أَنَّ خَيْلًا بِالْوَادِي تُرِيدُ أَنْ تُغِيرَ عَلَيْكُمْ أَكُنْتُمْ مُصَدِّقِيَّ؟ قَالُوا: نَعَمْ، مَا جَرَّبْنَا عَلَيْكَ كَذِبًا. قَالَ: فَإِنِّي نَذِيرٌ لَكُمْ بَيْنَ يَدَيْ عَذَابٍ شَدِيد.

    Ash-Shu'ara 26:214Sahih al-Bukhari 4770

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

  7. The sun in my right hand

    لَوْ وَضَعُوا الشَّمْسَ فِي يَمِينِي
    When Quraysh came to bargain

    Quraysh went to Abū Ṭālib and offered him wealth, then kingship, then the handsomest youth of Makkah in exchange for his nephew, and at last told him plainly to stop him or lose their protection. Abū Ṭālib put it to him, and he ﷺ answered that if they put the sun in his right hand and the moon in his left he would not abandon this matter. Then he turned to leave, weeping. His uncle called him back and said: go and say what you like; I will never hand you over.

    قَالَ ﷺ لِعَمِّهِ: يَا عَمِّ، وَاللَّهِ لَوْ وَضَعُوا الشَّمْسَ فِي يَمِينِي وَالْقَمَرَ فِي يَسَارِي عَلَى أَنْ أَتْرُكَ هَذَا الْأَمْرَ مَا تَرَكْتُهُ حَتَّى يُظْهِرَهُ اللَّهُ أَوْ أَهْلِكَ فِيه.

    وَاللَّهِ لَوْ وَضَعُوا الشَّمْسَ فِي يَمِينِي وَالْقَمَرَ فِي يَسَارِي عَلَى أَنْ أَتْرُكَ هَذَا الْأَمْرَ مَا تَرَكْتُه

    By Allah, if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left to make me leave this matter, I would not leave it.

    The Prophet ﷺ

    Ibn Isḥāq in Ibn Hishām’s recension

Read “The beginning of revelation” on its own

Chapter 3 سَنَوَاتُ الْبَلَاء

The years of trial

The fifth year of the message to the thirteenth

Torture in the sun, three years starved in a valley, the year that took his wife and his uncle together, a stoning at Ṭāʾif — and then, in the middle of it, the night he was taken through the heavens.

  1. Patience, family of Yāsir

    صَبْرًا آلَ يَاسِر
    The early years in Makkah

    Bilāl رضي الله عنه was laid on the burning stones of Makkah at midday with a rock on his chest and told to name another god, and said one word: aḥad, one. ʿAmmār and his mother and father were tortured in the heat, and he ﷺ passed them and could give them nothing but the truth: patience, family of Yāsir, your appointment is the Garden. Sumayyah رضي الله عنها was killed there, the first of this Ummah to die for it.

    عُذِّبَ بِلَالٌ فِي رَمْضَاءِ مَكَّةَ فَمَا يَقُولُ إِلَّا: أَحَدٌ أَحَدٌ. وَمَرَّ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ بِآلِ يَاسِرٍ وَهُمْ يُعَذَّبُونَ فَقَالَ: صَبْرًا آلَ يَاسِرٍ، فَإِنَّ مَوْعِدَكُمُ الْجَنَّة.

    Ibn Isḥāq · Ibn Saʿd

  2. Ḥamzah, and then ʿUmar

    إِسْلَامُ حَمْزَةَ وَعُمَر
    The sixth year of the message

    Ḥamzah رضي الله عنه came back from hunting, heard how Abū Jahl had abused his nephew, went to the Kaʿbah, struck him with his bow and said: I am on his religion. ʿUmar رضي الله عنه set out with a sword to kill him ﷺ, was sent instead to his own sister’s house, heard Sūrah Ṭāhā being read there, and walked from it to the Prophet ﷺ to submit. After ʿUmar, the Muslims prayed at the Kaʿbah openly.

    أَسْلَمَ حَمْزَةُ بْنُ عَبْدِ الْمُطَّلِبِ غَضَبًا لِابْنِ أَخِيهِ، ثُمَّ أَسْلَمَ عُمَرُ بْنُ الْخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا بَعْدَ سَمَاعِهِ سُورَةَ طه، فَظَهَرَ الْمُسْلِمُونَ بِالصَّلَاةِ عِنْدَ الْكَعْبَة.

    Ibn Hishām · Ibn Saʿd

  3. The crossing to Abyssinia

    الْهِجْرَةُ إِلَى الْحَبَشَة
    The fifth year of the message

    He ﷺ told them to go to Abyssinia, where a king rules and no one beside him is wronged. Quraysh sent men after them with gifts to have them handed back. Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنه stood before the Negus and said: we were a people of ignorance who ate carrion and abandoned our kin, until a man arose among us whose truthfulness we knew — and he recited the opening of Sūrah Maryam. The Negus wept until his beard was wet and refused to give them up.

    أَمَرَهُمْ ﷺ بِالْهِجْرَةِ إِلَى الْحَبَشَةِ، فَإِنَّ بِهَا مَلِكًا لَا يُظْلَمُ عِنْدَهُ أَحَدٌ. فَخَطَبَ جَعْفَرُ بْنُ أَبِي طَالِبٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عِنْدَ النَّجَاشِيِّ وَقَرَأَ عَلَيْهِ صَدْرَ سُورَةِ مَرْيَمَ، فَبَكَى وَأَبَى أَنْ يُسْلِمَهُم.

    Maryam 19:1

    Ibn Isḥāq · Aḥmad, al-Musnad

  4. Three years in the valley

    الصَّحِيفَةُ فِي الشِّعْب
    The seventh to the tenth year of the message

    Quraysh wrote a document and hung it in the Kaʿbah: no marriage with Banū Hāshim, no trade, no food sold to them, until they gave him up. The clan withdrew into the valley of Abū Ṭālib for three years. The children’s crying could be heard outside it; they ate the leaves of trees. It ended when a few men of Quraysh could no longer live with it — and when the document was brought out and found eaten away, with nothing left of it but the name of Allah.

    كَتَبَتْ قُرَيْشٌ الصَّحِيفَةَ عَلَى بَنِي هَاشِمٍ وَعَلَّقُوهَا فِي الْكَعْبَةِ، فَحُصِرُوا فِي الشِّعْبِ ثَلَاثَ سِنِينَ حَتَّى أَكَلُوا وَرَقَ الشَّجَرِ، ثُمَّ نَقَضَهَا اللَّهُ وَوَجَدُوا الْأَرَضَةَ قَدْ أَكَلَتْهَا إِلَّا اسْمَ اللَّه.

    Ibn Hishām · as-Suhaylī, ar-Rawḍ al-Unuf

  5. The year of sorrow

    عَامُ الْحُزْن
    The tenth year of the message

    Abū Ṭālib died, and with him the protection that had kept Makkah off him for ten years. Weeks later Khadījah رضي الله عنها died, and with her the house he came home to. Quraysh grew bolder the moment the first was gone; dust was thrown on his head in the street, and a daughter wiped it off him weeping, and he said to her: do not weep, daughter — Allah is protecting your father.

    تُوُفِّيَ أَبُو طَالِبٍ ثُمَّ خَدِيجَةُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا فِي عَامٍ وَاحِدٍ، فَسُمِّيَ عَامَ الْحُزْنِ، وَاشْتَدَّتْ قُرَيْشٌ عَلَيْهِ بَعْدَهُمَا.

    Ibn Isḥāq · Ibn Saʿd

  6. Ṭāʾif, and the answer he gave

    الطَّائِف
    Shawwāl, the tenth year of the message

    He walked sixty miles to Ṭāʾif to offer the message to Thaqīf, and they set their children and their slaves on him to line the road and stone him out of the town until the blood filled his sandals. He stopped in a garden and complained to his Lord of the weakness of his strength, and said that if He was not angry with him he did not care. The angel of the mountains was sent and offered to crush the town between the two hills. He said no.

    خَرَجَ إِلَى الطَّائِفِ يَدْعُو ثَقِيفًا، فَآذَوْهُ وَأَغْرَوْا بِهِ سُفَهَاءَهُمْ حَتَّى أَدْمَوْا عَقِبَيْهِ، فَدَعَا رَبَّهُ، وَلَمَّا عَرَضَ عَلَيْهِ مَلَكُ الْجِبَالِ أَنْ يُطْبِقَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَخْشَبَيْنِ قَالَ: بَلْ أَرْجُو أَنْ يُخْرِجَ اللَّهُ مِنْ أَصْلَابِهِمْ مَنْ يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ وَحْدَه.

    بَلْ أَرْجُو أَنْ يُخْرِجَ اللَّهُ مِنْ أَصْلَابِهِمْ مَنْ يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ وَحْدَهُ لَا يُشْرِكُ بِهِ شَيْئًا

    Rather, I hope that Allah will bring out of their loins those who worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him.

    The Prophet ﷺ
    Sahih al-Bukhari 3231

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām

  7. The night journey and the ascent

    الْإِسْرَاءُ وَالْمِعْرَاج
    Before the Hijrah

    In one night he ﷺ was carried from the Sacred Mosque to al-Aqṣā, where he led the prophets in prayer, and then taken up through the seven heavens past Ādam, ʿĪsā, Yūsuf, Idrīs, Hārūn, Mūsā and Ibrāhīm عليهم السلام to the Lote Tree of the Furthest Boundary, and beyond where Jibrīl could go. The prayers were given there — fifty, then lightened at his asking until they were five in deed and fifty in reward. Abū Bakr was told of it and said: if he said it, it is true. He has been aṣ-Ṣiddīq ever since.

    أُسْرِيَ بِهِ ﷺ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى، فَصَلَّى بِالْأَنْبِيَاءِ إِمَامًا، ثُمَّ عُرِجَ بِهِ إِلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ حَتَّى بَلَغَ سِدْرَةَ الْمُنْتَهَى، وَفُرِضَتِ الصَّلَوَاتُ الْخَمْسُ، وَهِيَ خَمْسٌ فِي الْعَمَلِ وَخَمْسُونَ فِي الْأَجْر.

    Al-Isra 17:1Sahih al-Bukhari 3887

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim · Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, ash-Shifāʾ

  8. The two pledges at ʿAqabah

    بَيْعَتَا الْعَقَبَة
    The eleventh to the thirteenth year of the message

    Six men of Yathrib met him at the pilgrimage and took what he said back to a city exhausted by its own civil war. A year later twelve came and pledged; the year after that seventy-three men and two women came in the dark of the valley and pledged to protect him as they protected their own wives and children. Their spokesman asked what they would have for it. He said: the Garden. They said: stretch out your hand. He sent Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr رضي الله عنه back with them to teach, and within a year there was scarcely a house in Yathrib without a Muslim in it.

    بَايَعَهُ الْأَنْصَارُ عِنْدَ الْعَقَبَةِ مَرَّتَيْنِ، وَكَانُوا فِي الثَّانِيَةِ ثَلَاثَةً وَسَبْعِينَ رَجُلًا وَامْرَأَتَيْنِ، بَايَعُوهُ عَلَى أَنْ يَمْنَعُوهُ مِمَّا يَمْنَعُونَ مِنْهُ نِسَاءَهُمْ وَأَبْنَاءَهُمْ، وَبَعَثَ مَعَهُمْ مُصْعَبَ بْنَ عُمَيْرٍ يُعَلِّمُهُم.

    Ibn Isḥāq · Ibn Sayyid an-Nās, ʿUyūn al-Athar

Read “The years of trial” on its own

Chapter 4 الْهِجْرَة

The migration

The year 1 AH — 622 CE

A price of a hundred camels on his head, a cave three nights above a search party, a pursuer whose horse sank into level ground, and a city that came out singing to meet him.

  1. The night of the plot

    لَيْلَةُ الْمَبِيت
    Ṣafar, 1 AH

    Quraysh met in the Dār an-Nadwah and agreed to take one young man from every clan, so that his blood would be on all of them at once and Banū Hāshim could not avenge it. He ﷺ had ʿAlī رضي الله عنه sleep in his bed — to return the deposits Makkah had left with him — and walked out through them. They were still watching the door at dawn.

    اجْتَمَعَتْ قُرَيْشٌ فِي دَارِ النَّدْوَةِ عَلَى قَتْلِهِ، فَأَمَرَ عَلِيًّا رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ أَنْ يَنَامَ عَلَى فِرَاشِهِ وَيُؤَدِّيَ الْوَدَائِعَ، وَخَرَجَ ﷺ مِنْ بَيْنِهِمْ وَهُمْ لَا يُبْصِرُونَه.

    Al-Anfal 8:30

    Ibn Hishām · Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah

  2. Do not grieve — Allah is with us

    الْغَارُ ثَوْر
    Three nights in the cave

    He ﷺ and Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه hid three nights in the cave of Thawr while Quraysh searched with trackers. The searchers came to the mouth of it. Abū Bakr looked at their feet and said: if one of them looks down he will see us. He said: what do you think of two whose third is Allah? The Qur’an set the words down as they were said.

    مَكَثَا فِي غَارِ ثَوْرٍ ثَلَاثَ لَيَالٍ، فَلَمَّا وَقَفَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ عَلَى فَمِ الْغَارِ قَالَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ: لَوْ أَنَّ أَحَدَهُمْ نَظَرَ تَحْتَ قَدَمَيْهِ لَأَبْصَرَنَا. فَقَالَ ﷺ: مَا ظَنُّكَ بِاثْنَيْنِ اللَّهُ ثَالِثُهُمَا.

    لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَنَا

    Do not grieve — indeed, Allah is with us.

    Sūrat at-Tawbah 9:40
    At-Tawbah 9:40Sahih al-Bukhari 3653

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

  3. Surāqah, and the bracelets of Kisrā

    سُرَاقَةُ بْنُ مَالِك
    On the road north

    A hundred camels were offered for him alive or dead, and Surāqah ibn Mālik rode out alone to collect them. He got close enough to hear the recitation. His horse’s forelegs sank into level ground, twice, and the third time he asked for safety and turned back — and turned every other tracker away from the road behind him. He ﷺ said to him: how will it be, Surāqah, when you wear the two bracelets of Kisrā? He wore them in ʿUmar’s caliphate, and remembered.

    طَلَبَهُ سُرَاقَةُ بْنُ مَالِكٍ يُرِيدُ الْجُعْلَ، فَسَاخَتْ قَوَائِمُ فَرَسِهِ فِي الْأَرْضِ، فَاسْتَأْمَنَ وَرَجَعَ يَرُدُّ النَّاسَ عَنْهُ، وَقَالَ لَهُ ﷺ: كَيْفَ بِكَ إِذَا لَبِسْتَ سِوَارَيْ كِسْرَى؟

    Sahih al-Bukhari 3906

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

  4. What Umm Maʿbad saw

    وَصْفُ أُمِّ مَعْبَد
    A tent on the road

    They stopped at the tent of Umm Maʿbad, who had nothing to give them; a barren ewe was left behind in the yard. He ﷺ asked leave to milk her, wiped her udder, named Allah, and she filled a vessel for the whole company and left milk behind. When her husband came home and asked who it had been, she described him — and her description is the most famous portrait of him ﷺ ever given by someone meeting him for the first time.

    نَزَلُوا بِخَيْمَةِ أُمِّ مَعْبَدٍ، فَمَسَحَ ﷺ ضَرْعَ شَاةٍ عَجْفَاءَ وَسَمَّى اللَّهَ فَدَرَّتْ حَتَّى رَوِيَ الْقَوْمُ، ثُمَّ وَصَفَتْهُ لِزَوْجِهَا وَصْفًا صَارَ مِنْ أَشْهَرِ مَا وُصِفَ بِهِ ﷺ.

    ظَاهِرُ الْوَضَاءَةِ، أَبْلَجُ الْوَجْهِ، حَسَنُ الْخَلْقِ… إِنْ صَمَتَ فَعَلَيْهِ الْوَقَارُ، وَإِنْ تَكَلَّمَ سَمَا وَعَلَاهُ الْبَهَاءُ، حُلْوُ الْمَنْطِقِ، فَصْلٌ لَا نَزْرٌ وَلَا هَذْر

    Radiant of face, bright of brow, beautifully made… when he is silent, dignity is upon him; when he speaks, he rises and splendour rises with him. Sweet of speech, distinct — neither too little nor too much.

    Umm Maʿbad, describing him to her husband

    al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak · al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil an-Nubuwwah

  5. Qubāʾ, and the city that came out to meet him

    قُبَاءٌ وَالْمَدِينَة
    Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 1 AH

    He ﷺ reached Qubāʾ and founded a mosque there — the first mosque founded on piety — then rode into Yathrib, which has been al-Madīnah ever since. Every household begged him to stay with them, and he let the camel choose; it knelt on ground belonging to two orphan boys, which he bought and built on. The people went up on the roofs, and the girls of Banū an-Najjār sang to the tambourine as he came down the road.

    قَدِمَ قُبَاءً فَأَسَّسَ مَسْجِدَهَا، ثُمَّ دَخَلَ الْمَدِينَةَ، فَبَرَكَتْ نَاقَتُهُ فِي مِرْبَدٍ لِغُلَامَيْنِ يَتِيمَيْنِ فَاشْتَرَاهُ وَبَنَى فِيهِ مَسْجِدَهُ، وَخَرَجَ أَهْلُ الْمَدِينَةِ يَسْتَقْبِلُونَهُ فَرَحًا.

    طَلَعَ الْبَدْرُ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ ثَنِيَّاتِ الْوَدَاعِ • وَجَبَ الشُّكْرُ عَلَيْنَا مَا دَعَا لِلَّهِ دَاعِ

    The full moon has risen over us from the passes of al-Wadāʿ — thanks are due from us, for as long as anyone calls to Allah.

    Sung by the people of Madinah as he arrived
    At-Tawbah 9:108

    Ibn Hishām · al-Bayhaqī, Dalāʾil an-Nubuwwah

Read “The migration” on its own

Chapter 5 بِنَاءُ الْمَدِينَة

Building Madinah

1 to 2 AH

A mosque of palm trunks with a floor of sand, strangers made brothers by name, a written constitution for a mixed city, a call that carries, and a change of direction in the middle of a prayer.

  1. The Prophet’s Mosque

    الْمَسْجِدُ النَّبَوِيّ
    The first months

    The first thing he built was the mosque, and he carried the bricks himself among them. Walls of mud, pillars of palm trunks, a roof of palm leaves that leaked, a floor of sand and pebbles. It was the prayer hall, the school, the court, the treasury, the hospital and the guest house of the community at once — and the shelter of the poorest of them, who had no other roof.

    كَانَ أَوَّلَ مَا بَنَى الْمَسْجِدَ، وَنَقَلَ اللَّبِنَ بِيَدِهِ مَعَ أَصْحَابِهِ، جُدُرُهُ اللَّبِنُ وَسَوَارِيهِ جُذُوعُ النَّخْلِ وَسَقْفُهُ الْجَرِيدُ، فَكَانَ مَسْجِدًا وَمَدْرَسَةً وَدَارَ قَضَاءٍ وَمَأْوًى لِأَهْلِ الصُّفَّة.

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Saʿd

  2. The brotherhood

    الْمُؤَاخَاة
    The first year

    The Emigrants arrived with nothing at all. He ﷺ paired each of them with a man of the Anṣār, by name, and made them brothers — inheriting from each other at first, and sharing house and property in fact. Saʿd ibn ar-Rabīʿ offered ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf half his wealth. ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān said: may Allah bless you in your family and your wealth — show me the market. It is the plainest thing in the whole sīrah, and the hardest.

    آخَى ﷺ بَيْنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنْصَارِ، فَعَرَضَ سَعْدُ بْنُ الرَّبِيعِ عَلَى عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ عَوْفٍ شَطْرَ مَالِهِ، فَقَالَ: بَارَكَ اللَّهُ لَكَ فِي أَهْلِكَ وَمَالِكَ، دُلَّنِي عَلَى السُّوق.

    Al-Hashr 59:9Sahih al-Bukhari 2048

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

  3. The document of Madinah

    صَحِيفَةُ الْمَدِينَة
    The first year

    He ﷺ wrote a document between the Muslims of Quraysh and Yathrib and those who followed them, and the Jews of the city with them: one community, each with their own religion, each clan responsible for its own, common defence of the city, and disputes referred to Allah and to him. It is the earliest written constitution of its kind we have, and it made a city out of tribes that had been killing each other within living memory.

    كَتَبَ ﷺ كِتَابًا بَيْنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنْصَارِ، وَادَعَ فِيهِ يَهُودَ الْمَدِينَةِ وَعَاهَدَهُمْ، وَأَقَرَّهُمْ عَلَى دِينِهِمْ وَأَمْوَالِهِمْ، وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَهُمُ النَّصْرَ عَلَى مَنْ حَارَبَ أَهْلَ الصَّحِيفَة.

    Ibn Hishām, where the text is given in full

  4. The call to prayer

    الْأَذَان
    The first year

    They needed a way to gather people for the prayer and disliked every method they knew — a horn, a bell, a fire. ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه saw the words in a dream, and ʿUmar رضي الله عنه had seen the same. He ﷺ said: it is a true dream — teach it to Bilāl, for he has a finer voice than yours. From then on the city was called to prayer by a man who had been tortured in the sun for saying one of its words.

    أُرِيَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ زَيْدٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ الْأَذَانَ فِي الْمَنَامِ، فَقَالَ ﷺ: إِنَّهَا لَرُؤْيَا حَقٍّ، فَقُمْ مَعَ بِلَالٍ فَأَلْقِ عَلَيْهِ مَا رَأَيْتَ، فَإِنَّهُ أَنْدَى صَوْتًا مِنْك.

    Sunan Abi Dawud 499

    Sunan Abī Dāwūd · at-Tirmidhī

  5. The turning of the qiblah

    تَحْوِيلُ الْقِبْلَة
    Rajab, 2 AH

    For sixteen or seventeen months they prayed toward Jerusalem, and he ﷺ used to turn his face up to the sky waiting. The verse came down in the middle of a prayer: turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque. The congregation turned where they stood, mid-rakʿah — and the mosque where it happened has been called the Mosque of the Two Qiblahs ever since.

    صَلَّى ﷺ نَحْوَ بَيْتِ الْمَقْدِسِ سِتَّةَ عَشَرَ أَوْ سَبْعَةَ عَشَرَ شَهْرًا، وَكَانَ يُحِبُّ أَنْ يُوَجَّهَ إِلَى الْكَعْبَةِ، فَأَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ: فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ، فَتَحَوَّلُوا فِي أَثْنَاءِ الصَّلَاة.

    Al-Baqarah 2:144Sahih al-Bukhari 40

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim

  6. The People of the Bench

    أَهْلُ الصُّفَّة
    Throughout the Madinan years

    A shaded platform at the back of the mosque housed those who had no family and no house in the city — seventy or so at a time, learning the Qur’an, going out to fetch water for a handful of dates. Abū Hurayrah رضي الله عنه was one of them, and fainted from hunger in the mosque more than once. Much of what this Ummah knows of the daily life of the Prophet ﷺ was memorised by men living on that bench.

    كَانَ أَهْلُ الصُّفَّةِ أَضْيَافَ الْإِسْلَامِ، لَا أَهْلَ لَهُمْ وَلَا مَالَ، يَأْوُونَ إِلَى مُؤَخَّرِ الْمَسْجِدِ يَتَعَلَّمُونَ الْقُرْآنَ، وَكَانَ أَبُو هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ مِنْهُم.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 6452

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Abū Nuʿaym, al-Ḥilyah

Read “Building Madinah” on its own

Chapter 6 الْمَغَازِي

The campaigns

2 to 7 AH

Six years in which a city of refugees was attacked three times over and survived — and in which the decisive turn was not a battle at all, but a treaty everyone present thought was a defeat.

  1. Badr

    غَزْوَةُ بَدْر
    17 Ramaḍān, 2 AH

    Three hundred and thirteen against something near a thousand, with two horses among them. He ﷺ stood in the shelter that night with his hands raised until his cloak fell from his shoulders. Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه put it back and said, enough. Quraysh lost seventy dead and seventy captured, and the Qur’an calls the day al-Furqān, the criterion. Captives who could write bought their freedom by teaching ten children of Madinah to read.

    خَرَجَ ﷺ فِي ثَلَاثِمِائَةٍ وَبِضْعَةَ عَشَرَ رَجُلًا، فَلَقُوا قُرَيْشًا بِبَدْرٍ، وَبَاتَ يَدْعُو رَبَّهُ حَتَّى سَقَطَ رِدَاؤُهُ، فَنَصَرَهُ اللَّهُ وَقُتِلَ مِنْ صَنَادِيدِ قُرَيْشٍ سَبْعُونَ وَأُسِرَ سَبْعُون.

    اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ تَهْلِكْ هَذِهِ الْعِصَابَةُ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْإِسْلَامِ لَا تُعْبَدْ فِي الْأَرْض

    O Allah, if this band of the people of Islam perishes, You will not be worshipped on the earth.

    The Prophet ﷺ, on the night of Badr
    Aal-E-Imran 3:123Sahih al-Bukhari 3953

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām

  2. Uḥud

    غَزْوَةُ أُحُد
    Shawwāl, 3 AH

    Quraysh came back with three thousand. He ﷺ put fifty archers on a hill and told them not to leave it whether the Muslims were winning or being carried off by birds. The battle was won; the archers came down for the spoils; the cavalry came round the hill behind them. Seventy were killed, Ḥamzah رضي الله عنه among them. His own face was cut, a tooth broken, and two rings of his helmet driven into his cheek — and asked to curse them, he asked forgiveness for them instead.

    أَقْبَلَتْ قُرَيْشٌ فِي ثَلَاثَةِ آلَافٍ، فَأَقَامَ ﷺ الرُّمَاةَ عَلَى الْجَبَلِ وَنَهَاهُمْ عَنْ مُفَارَقَتِهِ، فَلَمَّا نَزَلُوا دَارَتِ الْخَيْلُ مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ، وَاسْتُشْهِدَ سَبْعُونَ مِنْهُمْ حَمْزَةُ سَيِّدُ الشُّهَدَاءِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْه.

    اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِقَوْمِي فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُون

    O Allah, forgive my people, for they do not know.

    The Prophet ﷺ, with his face bleeding
    Aal-E-Imran 3:152Sahih al-Bukhari 4067

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · al-Wāqidī, al-Maghāzī

  3. The Trench

    غَزْوَةُ الْخَنْدَق
    Shawwāl, 5 AH

    Ten thousand came to finish Madinah. Salmān al-Fārisī رضي الله عنه proposed a trench across the open side of the city, and they dug it in the cold with stones tied to their stomachs against the hunger — and he ﷺ dug with them and was hungrier. A month of siege ended in a wind that tore the confederates’ tents out of the ground in the night. He said afterwards: now we go to them, and they do not come to us.

    أَقْبَلَتِ الْأَحْزَابُ فِي عَشَرَةِ آلَافٍ، فَأَشَارَ سَلْمَانُ الْفَارِسِيُّ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ بِحَفْرِ الْخَنْدَقِ، فَحَفَرَهُ الْمُسْلِمُونَ وَالنَّبِيُّ ﷺ مَعَهُمْ، ثُمَّ أَرْسَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًا فَانْصَرَفُوا خَائِبِين.

    Al-Ahzab 33:9Sahih al-Bukhari 4101

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām

  4. Ḥudaybiyah — a clear opening

    صُلْحُ الْحُدَيْبِيَة
    Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 6 AH

    He set out for ʿUmrah with fourteen hundred unarmed men and was turned back at Ḥudaybiyah. The treaty he signed looked like a surrender: go home this year, a ten-year truce, and anyone fleeing Makkah to him must be returned. He even let them strike out “Messenger of Allah” from the document. On the road home Sūrat al-Fatḥ came down calling it a clear opening — and in the two years of peace that followed, more people entered Islam than in all nineteen years before it.

    خَرَجَ ﷺ مُعْتَمِرًا فِي أَلْفٍ وَأَرْبَعِمِائَةٍ، فَصُدَّ عَنِ الْبَيْتِ، فَصَالَحَ قُرَيْشًا بِالْحُدَيْبِيَةِ عَلَى شُرُوطٍ ظَاهِرُهَا الْغَبْنُ، فَأَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ: إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا، وَدَخَلَ النَّاسُ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ فِي تِلْكَ الْهُدْنَةِ أَكْثَرَ مِمَّا دَخَلُوا قَبْلَهَا.

    Al-Fath 48:1Sahih al-Bukhari 2731

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · az-Zuhrī in Ibn Hishām

  5. The letters to the kings

    الرَّسَائِلُ إِلَى الْمُلُوك
    6 to 7 AH

    From a city that had been under siege the year before, he ﷺ had a silver seal cut and sent letters to Heraclius of Rome, Khosrau of Persia, the Muqawqis of Egypt, the Negus and the Arab kings, calling each of them to Islam in a few lines. Khosrau tore his up. Heraclius questioned Abū Sufyān about him in Jerusalem, got answers that fit a prophet, and kept the letter.

    كَتَبَ ﷺ إِلَى مُلُوكِ الْأَرْضِ يَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَى الْإِسْلَامِ: إِلَى هِرَقْلَ وَكِسْرَى وَالْمُقَوْقِسِ وَالنَّجَاشِيِّ وَغَيْرِهِمْ، وَاتَّخَذَ خَاتَمًا مِنْ فِضَّةٍ نَقْشُهُ: مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّه.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 7

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Saʿd

  6. Khaybar

    خَيْبَر
    Muḥarram, 7 AH

    The fortresses of Khaybar, from which the confederates had been raised against Madinah, were taken in under a month. He ﷺ said he would give the banner to a man who loved Allah and His Messenger and whom they loved; he gave it to ʿAlī رضي الله عنه, whose eyes were sore, after wiping them. The land was left in its people’s hands for half its produce.

    فَتَحَ ﷺ حُصُونَ خَيْبَرَ، وَأَعْطَى الرَّايَةَ عَلِيًّا رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ بَعْدَ أَنْ تَفَلَ فِي عَيْنَيْهِ فَبَرَأَتَا، وَأَقَرَّ أَهْلَهَا فِي أَرْضِهِمْ عَلَى شَطْرِ مَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 3701

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim

Read “The campaigns” on its own

Chapter 7 الْفَتْحُ وَتَمَامُ الدِّين

The opening, and the completion

8 to 10 AH

Makkah taken without a battle and forgiven in one sentence, the idols cleared out of the House, and a sermon in a valley that the whole peninsula heard at once.

  1. Go — you are free

    فَتْحُ مَكَّة
    Ramaḍān, 8 AH

    Quraysh broke the treaty, and ten thousand came down on Makkah — and it was taken with almost no blood. He entered with his head bowed so low over the saddle that his beard nearly touched it. He cleared the idols from around the House, reciting: truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Then he stood at the door of the Kaʿbah before the men who had tortured his companions and driven him out, and asked what they expected of him. They said: a noble brother, and the son of a noble brother. He said: go — you are free.

    دَخَلَ ﷺ مَكَّةَ فَاتِحًا فِي عَشَرَةِ آلَافٍ، وَرَأْسُهُ مُطَأْطِئٌ تَوَاضُعًا لِلَّهِ، فَكَسَرَ الْأَصْنَامَ وَهُوَ يَقُولُ: جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ. ثُمَّ قَالَ لِقُرَيْشٍ: اذْهَبُوا فَأَنْتُمُ الطُّلَقَاء.

    لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْيَوْمَ، اذْهَبُوا فَأَنْتُمُ الطُّلَقَاء

    No reproach upon you this day. Go — you are the freed ones.

    The Prophet ﷺ, at the door of the Kaʿbah
    Al-Isra 17:81Sahih al-Bukhari 4287

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām · al-Bayhaqī

  2. Bilāl on the roof of the Kaʿbah

    أَذَانُ بِلَالٍ فَوْقَ الْكَعْبَة
    The day of the opening

    When the time of prayer came he told Bilāl رضي الله عنه to climb onto the roof of the Kaʿbah and call. The man who had been dragged over the stones of that city by boys — in that city, above its House, calling its people to prayer.

    أَمَرَ بِلَالًا رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ أَنْ يَعْلُوَ ظَهْرَ الْكَعْبَةِ فَيُؤَذِّنَ، فَأَذَّنَ فَوْقَهَا يَوْمَ الْفَتْحِ، وَهُوَ الَّذِي كَانَ يُعَذَّبُ فِي رِمَالِ تِلْكَ الْبَلْدَة.

    Ibn Hishām · Ibn Saʿd

  3. Ḥunayn, and the Anṣār

    حُنَيْنٌ وَالْأَنْصَار
    Shawwāl, 8 AH

    Hawāzin ambushed twelve thousand Muslims in a narrow valley and the army broke; he ﷺ stayed on his mule facing them. The day turned. He then gave the whole spoil to the new Makkan Muslims and nothing to the Anṣār, and when word of their hurt reached him he gathered them alone and asked: are you not content that the people go back with sheep and camels, and you go back with the Messenger of Allah? They wept and said: we are content.

    انْهَزَمَ النَّاسُ يَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ وَثَبَتَ ﷺ عَلَى بَغْلَتِهِ يَقُولُ: أَنَا النَّبِيُّ لَا كَذِبْ. ثُمَّ قَسَمَ الْغَنَائِمَ فِي الْمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ، وَقَالَ لِلْأَنْصَارِ: أَمَا تَرْضَوْنَ أَنْ يَذْهَبَ النَّاسُ بِالشَّاةِ وَالْبَعِيرِ وَتَرْجِعُوا بِرَسُولِ اللَّهِ إِلَى رِحَالِكُم.

    At-Tawbah 9:25Sahih al-Bukhari 4333

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim

  4. Tabūk, and the three who stayed behind

    تَبُوك
    Rajab, 9 AH

    The hardest expedition: six hundred miles north in the heat of high summer, at harvest, against the reported muster of Rome. Two men shared one date a day. ʿUthmān رضي الله عنه equipped a third of the army. No battle was fought. Three companions stayed behind with no excuse and told the truth about it, were shunned by the whole city for fifty nights until the earth grew narrow for them, and were forgiven in the Qur’an.

    خَرَجَ ﷺ إِلَى تَبُوكَ فِي حَرٍّ شَدِيدٍ وَعُسْرَةٍ مِنَ الزَّادِ وَالظَّهْرِ، وَجَهَّزَ عُثْمَانُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ جَيْشَ الْعُسْرَةِ، وَتَخَلَّفَ الثَّلَاثَةُ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا فَتَابَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِم.

    At-Tawbah 9:118Sahih al-Bukhari 4418

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Hishām

  5. The year of delegations

    عَامُ الْوُفُود
    9 AH

    The tribes had been waiting to see how Makkah settled it, and once it was settled they came — delegation after delegation into Madinah from every corner of Arabia. He received the Christians of Najrān in his own mosque and let them pray in it. Twenty-three years after one man was told to read in a cave, the peninsula was one community.

    قَدِمَتْ وُفُودُ الْعَرَبِ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ بِالْمَدِينَةِ مِنْ كُلِّ نَاحِيَةٍ حَتَّى سُمِّيَ عَامَ الْوُفُودِ، وَأَنْزَلَ وَفْدَ نَجْرَانَ فِي مَسْجِدِهِ وَأَذِنَ لَهُمْ أَنْ يُصَلُّوا فِيه.

    An-Nasr 110:1-2

    Ibn Saʿd, aṭ-Ṭabaqāt · Ibn Hishām

  6. The Farewell Pilgrimage

    حَجَّةُ الْوَدَاع
    Dhū al-Ḥijjah, 10 AH

    A hundred thousand and more went with him. He stood at ʿArafah on his camel and gave the sermon that closed the age he had been sent into: your blood and your property are sacred to you; every claim of blood from the days of ignorance is under my feet; no Arab has any merit over a non-Arab except by God-consciousness; fear Allah regarding women; I have left among you what you will not go astray after — the Book of Allah. Then: have I conveyed? And the whole valley answered yes. And he said: O Allah, bear witness.

    حَجَّ ﷺ حَجَّةَ الْوَدَاعِ وَخَطَبَ النَّاسَ بِعَرَفَةَ فَقَالَ: إِنَّ دِمَاءَكُمْ وَأَمْوَالَكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ حَرَامٌ، وَاسْتَوْصُوا بِالنِّسَاءِ خَيْرًا، وَتَرَكْتُ فِيكُمْ مَا لَنْ تَضِلُّوا بَعْدَهُ: كِتَابَ اللَّهِ. ثُمَّ قَالَ: أَلَا هَلْ بَلَّغْتُ؟ قَالُوا: نَعَمْ. قَالَ: اللَّهُمَّ اشْهَد.

    الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا

    This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and chosen Islam as your religion.

    Sūrat al-Māʾidah 5:3, revealed at ʿArafah that day
    Al-Ma'idah 5:3Sahih Muslim 1218

    Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the ḥadīth of Jābir on the Ḥajj

Read “The opening, and the completion” on its own

Chapter 8 الشَّمَائِلُ وَالْوَفَاة

His person ﷺ, and his passing

What those who saw him reported

The part of the sīrah to which the scholars gave whole books of their own: not what he did, but what he was like — how he looked, how he spoke, how he was at home, and how he left.

  1. How he looked ﷺ

    خَلْقُهُ الشَّرِيف
    From those who described him

    Neither tall nor short. A wide brow, black eyes with a natural line of kohl in them, a fine nose, a thick beard, hair to his earlobes. Broad-shouldered and wide-chested; when he turned, he turned his whole body. Anas رضي الله عنه, who served him ten years, said he never touched silk softer than his palm and never smelled a scent better than his scent. Those who saw him said: I have never seen anyone like him, before or after.

    لَمْ يَكُنْ بِالطَّوِيلِ الْبَائِنِ وَلَا بِالْقَصِيرِ، أَزْهَرُ اللَّوْنِ، وَاسِعُ الْجَبِينِ، أَدْعَجُ الْعَيْنَيْنِ، كَثُّ اللِّحْيَةِ، إِذَا الْتَفَتَ الْتَفَتَ جَمِيعًا. قَالَ أَنَسٌ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ: مَا مَسِسْتُ حَرِيرًا أَلْيَنَ مِنْ كَفِّ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ، وَلَا شَمِمْتُ رِيحًا أَطْيَبَ مِنْ رِيحِه.

    Shama'il Muhammadiyah 1

    at-Tirmidhī, ash-Shamāʾil al-Muḥammadiyyah

  2. His character ﷺ

    خُلُقُهُ ﷺ
    What his wife said of him

    Asked to describe his character, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها said: his character was the Qur’an. He never struck anything with his hand — not a servant, not a woman — except in the way of Allah. Given a choice between two things he took the easier, so long as it was not a sin. He never took revenge for himself. Anas رضي الله عنه served him ten years and was never once asked why he had done a thing, or why he had not.

    سُئِلَتْ عَائِشَةُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا عَنْ خُلُقِهِ فَقَالَتْ: كَانَ خُلُقُهُ الْقُرْآنَ. وَمَا ضَرَبَ بِيَدِهِ شَيْئًا قَطُّ إِلَّا أَنْ يُجَاهِدَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ، وَمَا انْتَقَمَ لِنَفْسِهِ قَط.

    وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَى خُلُقٍ عَظِيم

    And indeed, you are of a tremendous character.

    Sūrat al-Qalam 68:4
    Al-Qalam 68:4Sahih Muslim 746

    Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim · Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, ash-Shifāʾ

  3. How he prayed ﷺ

    عِبَادَتُهُ ﷺ
    At night

    He stood in the night until his feet swelled. ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها asked him why, when Allah had already forgiven him what came before and after. He said: shall I not be a thankful servant? He wept in prayer, and there was a sound from his chest like a boiling pot. He fasted until it was said he never broke his fast, and broke it until it was said he never fasted.

    كَانَ يَقُومُ حَتَّى تَتَفَطَّرَ قَدَمَاهُ، فَقِيلَ لَهُ: أَتَصْنَعُ هَذَا وَقَدْ غَفَرَ اللَّهُ لَكَ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرَ؟ فَقَالَ: أَفَلَا أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا. وَكَانَ يُصَلِّي وَلِصَدْرِهِ أَزِيزٌ كَأَزِيزِ الْمِرْجَل.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 1130

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Sunan Abī Dāwūd

  4. How he was at home ﷺ

    فِي بَيْتِه
    What they saw indoors

    Asked what he did in his house, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها said: he was in the service of his family — mending his own sandal, patching his own garment, milking his sheep — until the prayer was called, and then he went out. He raced her in the desert and let her win, and reminded her of it years later when he won. He never once criticised food: if he wanted it he ate it, and if not he left it.

    سُئِلَتْ عَائِشَةُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا: مَا كَانَ يَصْنَعُ فِي بَيْتِهِ؟ قَالَتْ: كَانَ فِي مِهْنَةِ أَهْلِهِ، يَخْصِفُ نَعْلَهُ وَيَرْقَعُ ثَوْبَهُ وَيَحْلُبُ شَاتَهُ، فَإِذَا حَضَرَتِ الصَّلَاةُ خَرَجَ إِلَيْهَا.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 676

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · ash-Shamāʾil

  5. His mercy ﷺ

    رَحْمَتُهُ ﷺ
    Everywhere in the account

    He shortened the prayer because he heard a child crying and knew what it did to the mother. He stood for a passing funeral, was told whose it was, and said: was it not a soul? He forbade the burning of an ant-hill and the taking of fledglings from a nest, and told a man who said he had ten children and had never kissed one of them that whoever shows no mercy is shown none. The whole of it is one verse: We sent you only as a mercy to the worlds.

    كَانَ يُخَفِّفُ الصَّلَاةَ إِذَا سَمِعَ بُكَاءَ الصَّبِيِّ رَحْمَةً بِأُمِّهِ، وَقَامَ لِجَنَازَةٍ مَرَّتْ بِهِ فَقِيلَ لَهُ فَقَالَ: أَلَيْسَتْ نَفْسًا؟ وَقَالَ: مَنْ لَا يَرْحَمْ لَا يُرْحَم.

    وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِين

    And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds.

    Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ 21:107
    Al-Anbya 21:107Sahih al-Bukhari 5997

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, ash-Shifāʾ

  6. The final illness

    الْمَرَضُ الْأَخِير
    Ṣafar to Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 11 AH

    The fever took him, and he asked his wives’ leave to be nursed in ʿĀʾishah’s room, and walked there between two men with his feet dragging. He told Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه to lead the prayer. He came out one last time, on the Monday morning, and pulled back the curtain to see the rows of them praying — and smiled; and Abū Bakr stepped back thinking he was coming out, and he signalled them to finish. His last instructions were: the prayer, the prayer, and those your right hands possess.

    اشْتَدَّ بِهِ الْوَجَعُ فَاسْتَأْذَنَ أَزْوَاجَهُ أَنْ يُمَرَّضَ فِي بَيْتِ عَائِشَةَ، وَأَمَرَ أَبَا بَكْرٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ أَنْ يُصَلِّيَ بِالنَّاسِ، وَكَشَفَ السِّتْرَ يَوْمَ الِاثْنَيْنِ فَنَظَرَ إِلَيْهِمْ صُفُوفًا فَتَبَسَّمَ. وَكَانَ آخِرَ مَا أَوْصَى بِهِ: الصَّلَاةَ الصَّلَاةَ وَمَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُم.

    Sahih al-Bukhari 680

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · Ibn Saʿd

  7. The highest company

    الرَّفِيقُ الْأَعْلَى
    Monday, Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 11 AH

    He was taken on a Monday, in the forenoon, in the room of ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها, his head against her chest, a vessel of water beside him that he kept putting his hands into and wiping his face with, saying: there is a hardship in death. His last words, spoken looking upward, were: with the highest company. He was sixty-three. Anas رضي الله عنه said: no day was ever brighter than the day he entered Madinah, and no day darker than the day he was taken from it.

    تُوُفِّيَ ﷺ يَوْمَ الِاثْنَيْنِ ضُحًى فِي بَيْتِ عَائِشَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَا وَرَأْسُهُ عَلَى صَدْرِهَا، وَكَانَ آخِرُ كَلَامِهِ: مَعَ الرَّفِيقِ الْأَعْلَى، وَلَهُ ثَلَاثٌ وَسِتُّونَ سَنَة.

    اللَّهُمَّ الرَّفِيقَ الْأَعْلَى

    O Allah — the highest company.

    His ﷺ last words
    Sahih al-Bukhari 4449

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim

  8. What was said that afternoon

    وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلَّا رَسُول
    The same day

    Madinah would not accept it. ʿUmar رضي الله عنه stood with his sword and said he would strike the hands and feet off any man who said the Messenger of Allah was dead. Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه came in, uncovered his face, kissed his forehead and said: you are good in life and in death. Then he went out and said: whoever worshipped Muḥammad — Muḥammad is dead. Whoever worships Allah — Allah is alive and never dies. And he recited the verse, and it was as though the people had never heard it until that moment.

    قَامَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ فَقَالَ: مَنْ كَانَ يَعْبُدُ مُحَمَّدًا فَإِنَّ مُحَمَّدًا قَدْ مَاتَ، وَمَنْ كَانَ يَعْبُدُ اللَّهَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ حَيٌّ لَا يَمُوتُ. ثُمَّ تَلَا: وَمَا مُحَمَّدٌ إِلَّا رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُل.

    Aal-E-Imran 3:144Sahih al-Bukhari 3667

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī

Read “His person ﷺ, and his passing” on its own

مَصَادِرُ هَذِهِ السِّيرَة The books this is read through

Nothing here is this site’s own opinion. The account follows the sīrah as mainstream Sunni scholarship has transmitted and taught it — Ashʿarī and Māturīdī in creed, following the four schools in law. Where a moment names a book, that book is where it is told.

  • السِّيرَةُ النَّبَوِيَّة as-Sīrah an-Nabawiyyah Ibn Isḥāq, in Ibn Hishām’s recension · d. 218 AH The earliest full life we have, and the frame every later sīrah is built on.
  • الطَّبَقَاتُ الْكُبْرَى aṭ-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā Ibn Saʿd · d. 230 AH The companions, the households, the dates — where the sīrah gets its detail.
  • الشِّفَا بِتَعْرِيفِ حُقُوقِ الْمُصْطَفَى ash-Shifāʾ al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī · d. 544 AH On his ﷺ person and his rank, and the book the schools have taught for nine centuries.
  • الرَّوْضُ الْأُنُف ar-Rawḍ al-Unuf as-Suhaylī · d. 581 AH The commentary on Ibn Hishām that weighs what is sound and what is only told.
  • عُيُونُ الْأَثَر ʿUyūn al-Athar Ibn Sayyid an-Nās · d. 734 AH A ḥadīth scholar’s sīrah: the same life, told with the chains examined.
  • الْمَوَاهِبُ اللَّدُنِّيَّة al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyyah al-Qasṭallānī · d. 923 AH The great late synthesis, and az-Zurqānī’s commentary on it — the arrangement this section follows.
  • دَلَائِلُ النُّبُوَّة Dalāʾil an-Nubuwwah al-Bayhaqī · d. 458 AH The signs of prophethood, gathered with their chains by a ḥadīth master.
  • سَيِّدُنَا مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ Sayyidunā Muḥammad Rasūlullāh ﷺ Shaykh ʿAbdullāh Sirāj ad-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī · d. 1422 AH A modern sīrah in the same Sunni scholarly line, written with the love the older books were written with.