SS 102 LUMS

1. THE SĪRA TRADITIONS
Baqar Hassan Syed

2. Respect for the Prophet (SAW)
◦ al-Miswar and Marwan narrate the account of the treaty of Al-Hudaibiya in which Urwa
came to the Prophet (SAW) to negotiate its terms and when returned to his people and said:
"O people! By Allah, I have been to the kings and to Caesar,
Khosrau and An-Najashi, yet I have never seen any of them
respected by his courtiers as much as Muhammad is respected by
his companions. By Allah, if he spat, the spittle would fall in the
hand of one of them (i.e. Sahaba) who would rub it on his face
and skin; if he ordered them, they would carry out his order
immediately; if he performed ablution, they would struggle to take
the remaining water; and when they spoke, they would lower their
voices and would not look at his face constantly out of respect."
◦
[Bukhari Vol. 3, Book 50, No. 891 / Ahmad Bin Hanbal / Tabarani / Ibn-e-Habban / Bahaqi]

3. A Story
◦ Naratted by Anas bin Balik: Once Prophet Muhammad passed by a group. They had
hunted a doe and it was tied to a column. That doe said some thing to Prophet
Muhammad. Then Prophet Muhammad asked the group "who is the owner of this
dear?". They replied, "we are her owner." Prophet Muhammad then said "free her, she
wants to feed her fawns and after that she will come back to you". People asked "oh
Allah's Prophet, who will take guarantee of her return?" Prophet Muhammad said “I
take her guarantee".
They freed the doe. She went, fed her fawns and came back. When she came back
they tied her again. After some time Prophet Muhammad passed by that group again
and then he asked. Who is the owner of this doe? That group said "we are." Prophet
Muhammad asked. "would you sell this doe to me?" . The group said "oh Allah's Prophet
"it is yours". Then Prophet Muhammad freed that doe.
◦ [various sources including Tabarani and Ibn Kathir]

4. The Earliest Versions
◦The earliest biographies were very different from
modern accounts of the Prophet’s life
◦Modern biographies of the Prophet:
◦Begin from his birth and end with his death
◦Emphasize his orphanhood, marriage, relationships,
revelations, exile, leadership, and eventual victory
over Makkah
◦Tend to be chronological and “factual”

5. ◦However, the earliest biographies of the Prophet, which
can be traced to 60-70 AH were written in the maghāzī
tradition. Why?
◦The earliest surviving works are Ibn Isḥāq’s Sīrat Rasūl Allāh
and Al-Wāqidī’s Kitāb al-Tārīkh wa al-Maghāzī
Title Ibn Isḥaq
Born 85 AH/704 AD
[1]
Medina
Died 150–159 AH/761–770 AD
[1][2]
Baghdad
Title Al-Waqidi
Born ca. 130AH / AD 748 in Madina
Died 207AH / AD 822

6. Early Sīrah: Approaches and Concerns
◦ [The founding fathers‟] conception of history was different from
ours. They believed not only that history should relay the facts or
events of the past but that the duty of the historian was to
transmit what reached him from his predecessors, with minimal
critical interference from the historian himself. Yes, the historian
could and did say that this version of events was more trustworthy
than that, but his duty remained to include, not to exclude, other
versions…In addition, history for the founding fathers had a moral
and educational purpose.
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 62-3)

7. “The Sirah of Primitive Devotion”
◦ Tabari‟s comments on his method:
◦ Let him who examines this book of mine know what I have relied, as
regards everything I mention therein…solely upon what has been
transmitted to me by way of reports…This is because knowledge of the
reports of men of the past and of contemporaneous news of men of
the present do not reach the one who has not witnessed
them…Hence, If I mention in this book a report about some men of the
past which the reader…finds objectionable [or strange] because he
can see no aspect of truth…therein, let him know that this is not to be
attributed to us but to those who transmitted it to us…
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 99)

8. “The Sirah of Primitive Devotion”
◦ The Chronological Order Followed by the Founding Fathers:
◦ Prelude to Muhammad
◦ Birth and Infancy Stories
◦ Youth Prior to the Prophet‟s first marriage
◦ Marriage and beginning of revelations
◦ Preaching in Mecca
◦ Emigration to Medina
◦ Last days and death
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 61)

10. “The Sirah of Primitive Devotion”
◦ While I and my foster brother were out in the countryside,
two men in white robes approached me. They were
carrying a golden bowl filled with snow. They laid me down
on the ground, cut open my chest, removed my heart, cut it
open, removed a black spot therein and threw it away.
They then washed my heart and stomach with snow until
thoroughly cleansed, and restored it to its place
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 69)

11. “Canonizing/Moralizing Sirah”
◦ Herewith begins a chapter in the examination of
Muhammad‟s life during which, among other things,
Sira writers sought to place that life in a wider context of
the history and phenomenon of prophecy
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad)

12. “Canonizing/Moralizing Sirah”
◦ Proofs of Prophecy
◦ His Call to the One God, in which he was at one with all the Prophets
◦ His ascetic, chaste, and truthful manner of life
◦ His miracles, which only true prophets can produce
◦ His foretelling of certain events, which took place in his lifetime
◦ His foretelling of events, which took place after his lifetime
◦ The Book he brought
◦ His triumph over all the nations, which is necessarily and indisputably
a prophetic miracle
◦ Prophets long before his time had prophesied his coming
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 188-9)

13. “Canonizing/Moralizing Sīrah”
◦ This work is not composed in order to combat those
who deny his prophecy or question his
miracles…Rather, we have addressed it to the people
of his community who have answered his call and
believe in his prophecy, in order to fortify their love for
him and act as a model for their actions
◦ (Qazi „Iyad in Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 210)

14. “Canonizing/Moralizing Sīrah”
◦The Miraculous Prophet, the moral paragon, the
supreme object of love: these three images of
Muhammad…co-exist in al-Qadi‟s construction
of the “Chosen One.”
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 213)

15. “Canonizing/Moralizing Sirah”
◦ In him God joined a virtuous manner of life to perfect
governance, he being an illiterate person who could
neither read nor write, who was born and bred in a land
of ignorance…God raised him surrounded by affection,
an orphan with no mother or father, and taught him all
the excellences of virtue and of praiseworthy
conduct…God grant that we may obey his commands
and emulate him in all his acts
◦ (Ibn Hazm in Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 215)

16. “The Polemical Sirah”
◦In the third age [the Prophet‟s] life became
embedded in polemic and made to pass
the tests of modern science and logic or
else to serve ideological ends
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 301)

17. “The Polemical Sirah”
◦Thomas Carlyle (1840)
◦Romantic account of the Prophet
◦William Muir (1861)
◦Missionary account of the Prophet

18. “The Polemical Sirah”
◦Thomas Carlyle
◦ Carlyle…linked ideas of genius with notions of
greatness. Muhammad‟s unspoiled natural genius
allows him to do things that will affect the
world…Muslim authors appropriated his praise for
apologetic purposes.
◦ (Kecia Ali, The Lives of Muhammad, 48)

19. “The Polemical Sirah”
◦William Muir
◦ The evangelizing intent behind Muir‟s Life was no secret.
Muir tells how the Reverend Karl Pfander, stymied in his
efforts to convert Muslims, implored him to write a
biography suitable for evangelism
◦ (Kecia Ali, The Lives of Muhammad, 50)

20. “The Polemical Sirah”
◦ Muir‟s Life has a distinct moral and judgmental voice,
no less intense than Carlyle‟s fervor. [Whereas Carlyle
romanticizes Muhammad,] Muir‟s is the stern voice of
the Victorian missionary. Where Carlyle was soothing,
Muir‟s lengthy bill of indictment was a stark challenge to
Muhammad‟s followers, thus setting the agenda for
most modern Muslim Siras.
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 251)

21. “The Polemical Sirah”
◦ The Portrayals of Islam in Muir‟s Biography:
◦ Violent
◦ Intolerant
◦ Inconsistent
◦ Inauthentic
◦ Archaic

22. “The Polemical Sirah”
◦ Syed Ameer Ali (d. 1928)
◦ The Spirit of Islam
◦ The Prophet as “Teacher of Mankind”
◦ Ameer Ali argues that Muhammad‟s (PBUH) mission can be proven to be
more rational and pragmatic, thus more progressive, than that of all other
prophets.
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 255)

23. The Three Ages of Sirah writing
◦ In the first age [of Primitive Devotion, the Prophet‟s life] was largely
represented as a monument to inspire the community and a record to put
alongside the records of other prophets
◦ In the second age, [the Prophet‟s life] was shorn of its loose ends, ironed out,
compared favorably to the lives of other prophets and made explicitly
relevant to the community‟s needs, social, legal, and otherwise
◦ In the third age his life became embedded in polemic and made to pass the
tests of modern science and logic or else to serve ideological ends.
◦ (Khalidi, Images of Muhammad, 300-1)

24. Modern Versions
◦ As Numānī’s case for writing his sīra shows, modern versions of the
Prophet’s life arose as a direct response to polemical attacks on
Prophet during the colonial era
◦ Traditional biographies of the Prophet were normative, not
descriptive, while the modern historical ideal is disengaged
description
◦ While Muslim scholars developed complexes sciences for determining the
reliability of sources, the heightened concern for historical accuracy is a
modern phenomenon
◦ Why was this less of a problem for pre-modern Muslims?

25. The Limitations of Factuality
◦ All of the Prophet’s biographies try to balance the concern with
reliability and normativity
◦ How far can cold facts take us in our existential (spiritual)
concerns?
◦ The complexity of facts leave many things open to
interpretation– this is true for the Prophet’s life as it is true for the
text of the Qur’an