Seerah pt.3 - Why Study Seerah and Pre-Islamic Arabia - Corrected Transcription

6. The Seerah Provides a Methodology for Revival

Another benefit of studying the seerah is that the seerah lays out a precise methodology for the revival of the ummah. You know there are so many groups out there, we call them these Islamist groups, trying to revive the ummah. Each one has his own ideology, his own methodology. Well, why don't we begin with the methodology of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)

Let us see how he began. If you want to bring about izzah and honor and glory, let us look at what the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) did. Because he began in the middle of nothing, he began literally from scratch, literally from zero. And within his lifetime, look what happened.

So you want to see a methodology of revival? We look at the ummah today, and our hearts bleed. We look at the ummah today, and we see what is happening, and we wonder why, oh Allah, why is this happening? And we ask, how can we revive the state of the ummah? The response by studying the seerah, we see a methodology, a plan of revival.

7. Studying the Best Generation

By studying the seerah, we also see the life and times of the best generation who ever lived. And that is a generation of the sahaba. The best generation who ever lived, as we firmly believe.

"Allah is pleased with them, they are pleased with Allah."

And the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

(Bukhari and Muslim)

"The best of all generations has been my generation." The best ummah is my ummah, meaning that of the sahaba.

And Ibn Mas'ud said, that Allah looked at the hearts of His servants, and He chose the purest and the brightest heart to be that of the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And then He chose the purest and brightest hearts, and He made them the sahaba of the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)

So by studying the seerah, we study the stories of Abu Bakr and Umar. The stories of Anas and Jabir. The stories of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Talha and Zubair. And our iman goes up as well. These were legendary people. These were people, their life and times, they inspire us. Their sacrifices, their struggles, their perseverance, their patience. Each and every one of them is a role model for us.

And there is an athar, that might be slightly weak, but the athar concept is authentic, that "My sahaba are like the stars. Whichever one you follow, you're gonna be guided." And the point here is that the sahaba are role models for us, each and every one of us.

8. Knowledge to Defend the Prophet's Honor

Of the benefits of studying the seerah, is that the seerah brings about knowledge with which we can defend the honor of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). The Prophet's (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) honor has always been attacked from day one. The Quraysh fabricated things against him.

Sahirun kazzab. They said this is ifkun muftara. They said he is a madman, he is a magician, he is a poet, he is this, he is that. Because nobody can explain how the Qur'an came. You have to invent some explanation. Right? Where did this unlettered shepherd get the Qur'an from? Even the Arabs, the Quraysh had to explain.

So they invent the most preposterous claims. They said he is a magician, they said he is a madman, they said he is this, they said he is that. Well, the propaganda began back then. It continues to this day. And each one of the charges that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was accused of, the Qur'an defends against it. And each one of the charges later people invent, we need to turn to the seerah and defend against the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

In our times, how many people are saying that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was a bloodthirsty terrorist. This is exactly what they're saying. They're saying he was a womanizer, he married this, he married that. My dear brothers and sisters, if you want to defend Rasulullah, how do you expect to do so when you don't know his life and times? If you want to defend your Prophet, how are you going to do so when you don't know whether these things are true or not? And if certain elements are true, how do we understand them? And when we put them in context, then insha'Allah ta'ala, it is easier to explain.

So by studying the seerah, we will be able to defend the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And there is no way to defend him other than by studying the seerah. And that is why the early scholars of Islam, the sahaba

tabi'oon taba tabi'oon, they would teach the seerah just like they would teach all of the other sciences.

Ali ibn al-Husayn, the great grandson of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) he said, "We would teach our children maghazi," meaning the maghazi is the early word for seerah, the expeditions of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) "just like we would teach them the Qur'an."

You see, this is how they would raise their children, seerah and the Qur'an. You need to teach your children the Qur'an, and you need to teach them the seerah along with the Qur'an. And so the curriculum in early Islam was really composed of Qur'an and seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And I encourage all of you to start the same with your own children.

That instead of reading bedtime stories of ancient Greek pagans, why don't we talk about the life and times of our Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). Talk about the sahaba. And there are so many books of seerah for the children. That these are the stories that our children should be raised upon and listen to and hear.

Summary: The Study of the Best

So to summarize the benefits of studying the seerah, we can say that the study of the seerah is in fact the study of the best, and the best, and the best, and the best. What do I mean by this? It is the study of the life and times of the single best human being who ever lived. Now we firmly believe as Muslims that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) all the Prophets are good and pious and holy, and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is the best of them.

As he said in a hadith:

"I am the sayyid, I am the leader, the paragon of virtue of the children of Adam. And I'm not saying this out of arrogance, I'm not saying this to boast." This is a factual statement that Allah has told me.

So by studying the seerah, we study the best person. And the best time, because the best time is the time of the sahaba. The best people are the people of the sahaba. The best place, and that is Makkah and Medina. These are the holiest cities on earth.

And it is the seerah that brought prominence to these two cities. We firmly believe that Makkah was holy, but who believed it was holy? Who knew it was holy? Who cared it was holy? Until the seerah came. And as for Medina, it became holy in the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "I am making Medina holy like Ibrahim made Makkah holy, by the permission of Allah. I am declaring Medina to be holy like Ibrahim declared Makkah to be holy."

So the seerah is the life and times of the best human, in the best era, amongst the best people, and living in the best of all cities. In every angle, it is the best of the best of the best of the best. The best person, the

best time, the best place, and the best generation.

And therefore, studying the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)'s life and times is studying our religion, it is studying the rise of the phenomenon of our religion, it is studying how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brought about the revolution of Islam. He brought about an entire change of mind, how Islam changed the world. And by studying these 23 years of the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) it's only 23 years from his risalah. 23 years, the miracle of the seerah will benefit us in each and every aspect.

Sources of Seerah

The next question that arises is, where do we study the seerah from? What is the primary, or what are the primary sources of seerah? Now here I am, preaching to you in Memphis, Tennessee, 1429 years, or 32 years after the hijrah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) where did I get this information from? How do I know what happened? So the question arises, very briefly, I'm not going to go into too much detail, what are the sources of the seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)?

1. The Qur'an

Who can tell me the number one source of seerah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) The most? The Qur'an. The number one source is Qur'an. And this is a source that is overlooked by many of the people. It is overlooked by many of the people. Immediately jump to, is it Ibn Ishaq, is it Ibn Hisham, the number one source of seerah is the Qur'an.

Because the Qur'an was revealed during the seerah, so it's catering to situations that arose during the seerah. And the Qur'an references almost every single major incident in the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). In fact, even before his time. Such as for example:

The reference here is to when he was five years old. When the Jibreel came and visited him.

So, the seerah references every single major story in the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Is there any story mentioned even before he was born?

The Ashab al-Feel who was before the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was born. And Allah mentions it in the Qur'an, Ashab al-Feel.

So the seerah tells us stories from the beginning all the way up until the end:

One of the last verses revealed, the completion of the Qur'an. The Qur'an is the best source of seerah for many reasons.

First and foremost is the speech of Allah. So Allah is telling this to us. So can we doubt the speech of Allah? And the eloquence of the Qur'an is something that is unparalleled. The eloquence is simply unparalleled. How beautifully Allah describes Badr and Uhud. How beautifully Allah describes the feelings of the sahaba and the munafiqoon even.

So another benefit of the Qur'an, any historian will record the outward, the Qur'an records the inward. The Qur'an tells us that you were terrified that day, that your hearts were in your throats. The Qur'an tells us you became cowards. The Qur'an tells the munafiqoon, you are scared that Allah will expose you. Who can expose the hearts of the people other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the Qur'an is an amazing source of seerah.

The eloquence, the power, the beauty, and ilm al-ghayb. The Qur'an explains to us phenomena we would not have understand. Right? Badr, Allah says in the Qur'an:

"We sent down 3,000 angels." Don't worry, we're gonna help you. Uhud, Allah explained the disaster and catastrophe. Hudaybiyyah:

On and on, every single incident, the Qur'an tells us ilm al-ghayb. And there is no source of finding this out other than the Qur'an.

However, one of the issues, we never say problems, one of the issues of the Qur'an is that, of course, it's not chronological. Right? So, we don't know the reference of the Qur'an simply because Baqarah, Ali'Imran, Nisa, Ma'idah are not arranged chronologically. They're arranged according to how the Prophets want them to be arranged. So, Baqarah is an early madani surah, it comes first. And Iqrah, which is the first surah, is the 96th in the Qur'an.

So, it's not arranged chronologically. And another problem is that a lot of times, you don't see the reference mentioned. So, Allah Azzawajal doesn't mention the word Uhud. We need to know that Ali'lmran was revealed for Uhud. That Anfal was revealed for Badr. We need to know this.

And it's without, so, the seerah and the Qur'an go hand in hand. In that, you need the seerah to understand the Qur'an, you need the Qur'an to understand the seerah. So, the two go hand in hand.

2. Hadith

So, this is the first source. And it is the most prized source, it is the most eloquent source, and so on and so forth. The second source of seerah, as our sister pointed out, is hadith. And in fact, every hadith is one snapshot of the seerah. Is it not? What is a hadith? It's the saying of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And what is the saying of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) except one incident? And so, in one sense, every single hadith is a snapshot of the seerah.

But of course, when we mean hadith, we primarily mean those that describe some incidents. Somebody came, somebody did, this happened. And so, from the ahadith, and there are lots of books of hadith, lots of books, and the most famous ones, as you should know, are six of them, they are called the six famous books, al-Qutub al-Sitta.

Some call them as-Sihah al-Sitta, but that is not precise, because they are not all sahih. But the Qutub al- Sitta, these are the primary books, but there are lots of other books of hadith. There are dozens of other books of hadith.

3. Books Written Specifically for Seerah

The third source of seerah is books written specifically for seerah. And the first people to begin writing books of seerah were the sons of the sahaba. The sahaba's children. Can you imagine if your father was a sahabi, and he's telling you all of these stories of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and there are so many, you begin to write them down.

And of the greatest of those who wrote was Urwah, the son of Az-Zubair. Urwah, the son of Az-Zubair. Urwah is the son of the sahabi. The grandson of the sahabi. His mother is a sahabiya. His grandmother is a sahabiya. His brother is a sahabi. But he was born after the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So he's not a sahabi. His brother is even a sahabi, but he's not a sahabi. And his aunt is Aisha.

His aunt is Aisha, the wife of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So Urwah is one of the primary narrators of hadith, and fiqh, and tafsir, and of seerah. Because he has access to Aisha. Nobody had access to Aisha. He's a mahram. Aisha doesn't need to wear hijab in front of him.

So Urwah is the primary narrator from Aisha. And lots of details of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) come from Urwah. Because Aisha tells him those details. And it is said that Urwah wrote a small pamphlet of the seerah.

Also, the son of Uthman ibn Affan. His name was Aban. Aban ibn Uthman ibn Affan. The son of Uthman ibn Affan. He died 105 Hijrah. He also wrote a little booklet of seerah. And some other booklets were written. Until finally a great scholar came by the name of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri.

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, who died 129 Hijrah. And he wrote one of the first early treatises of seerah. Now none of these books is existent. None of them anymore. We simply have references in later books of these earlier books. Why aren't they existent? Very simple reason.

When later books came, they absorbed the earlier treatises. So, Aban is saying, my father told me, my father told me, my father told me. Urwah is saying, Aisha narrated, my father narrated, my uncle narrated. Three, four people. Imagine somebody comes and he takes Aban and Urwah and other books. And then he says, let me make a bigger book.

Once the bigger book is written, who needs Urwah and who needs Aban anymore, right? You might as well copy that book. And realize in those days there were no printing presses. In those days if you wanted a book, what would you do? You would sit there and write it yourself cover to cover.

So if you had to choose one book, you would choose the bigger ones. You would choose the ones with more details. And so, it's a sad case for us now. We wish we had those early books, but unfortunately we don't have them. But we do have books that were written in the very next generation. Very early.

And this shows us that seerah was compiled by and large even before hadith. By and large. Because they wanted to emphasize seerah more than anything else.

Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham

And the greatest, I'm being very simplistic here, because obviously we can go where there's lots of PhDs written about sources of seerah. I'm summarizing in a short sentences. The greatest scholar of seerah is a name most of you would have heard of. Ibn Ishaq. Seerah Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Ishaq.

His name is Muhammad Ibn Ishaq. And he was born around 85 Hijrah. Now think about it, 85 Hijrah. Which means, he's living in Medina. He's born in Medina. This is where the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) lived and died. This is where the children of the Sahaba are. He grew up around the children of the Sahaba and the grandchildren of the Sahaba. 85 Hijrah is very early, right? And the Sahaba lived up until around 100, 110 Hijrah.

You know, Jabir and others, they died 90 Hijrah. So, Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, or Ibn Ishaq for short, he met the sons of the Sahaba, maybe even he saw some of the Sahaba, maybe. But it's very early. 85 Hijrah when he's born is very early. And he began writing everything that he heard. And he just had a passion for the Seerah.

So he began writing everything and began compiling it in chronological order. Unlike the earlier treatises, they weren't in chronological order. Ibn Ishaq began saying, well this happened in early Makkah, this in middle Makkah, this late Makkah, then the Hijrah.

So he compiled a very large book. And just to be on the safe side, he even traveled to other cities where some of the Sahaba had went. Basra, Kufa. He went and traveled there to discover the stories of Ibn Mas'ud who traveled to Kufa. The stories of the Sahaba who traveled to other places in the world. So he traveled to other lands as well.

But his primary source was always in Medina. And one of the best things about Muhammad Ibn Ishaq is he compiled everything with the chain of narrators. What is the chain of narrators called in Islam? Isnad. Isnad is the chain of narrators. The chain of narrators is a uniquely Islamic phenomenon. It does not exist in any other religion or culture.

It's a uniquely Islamic phenomenon. And the chain of narrators tells us where the story came from. Because in Islam we always wanted to verify authenticity. We didn't just paste our religion, our superstitions and fables. Who told you this? Who told you that? Who told him that? Who told him that? All the way back to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So we compiled the narrators.

Ibn Ishaq from so and so, from so and so, from so and so. Back to the son of Jabir, from Jabir, from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So we have a whole Isnad. And we know every person, when he was born, when he died. How good was he of a Muslim? Was he a good memory or was he a poor memory? And therefore we can judge the Isnad. And so Ibn Ishaq began compiling the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

And he wrote a massive book. It was so big. They said it was in 10-15 volumes. And Ibn Ishaq died 150 Hijrah. So he lived from 85 to 150. Very early on.

It was so big that it was difficult to copy. And so one of his students, if you like, came along. Not a direct student, a student of a student. And his name was Ibn Hisham. These are two names most Muslims are aware of. Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham.

And Ibn Hisham, his name was Abdul Malik Ibn Hisham. Abdul Malik Ibn Hisham. And Ibn Hisham died 213 Hijrah. Now the reason why I'm going into detail here is that the average Muslim should be aware of these two source books of the Seerah. Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham. I know this is not directly the Seerah. We'll get there, but you need to know some books. Where does the Seerah come from? Primarily the number one source is Ibn Ishaq. And then Ibn Hisham.

Now what's the difference between Ibn Hisham and Ibn Ishaq? Very simple. Ibn Hisham realized that Ibn Ishaq is too big. 10-12 volumes. So he decided to summarize it. Ibn Hisham did not add anything, he subtracted. He did not rearrange, he deleted.

Ibn Hisham simply cut, cut, cut, cut. Lots of cuts he made. And he made it into, now Ibn Hisham is available in 4 volumes. I have an edition, 4 volumes, let's say. So they say he made it maybe into a half or a third of the original size.

Now somebody will say, why did he do that? Why didn't he leave it a large book? You need to realize in those days they didn't have printing press. If he wanted the book, he'd have to write it cover to cover. And he realized this was too much detail. And also one of the things of Ibn Ishaq, he was one of the first people to write a history of humanity.

He began from Adam, he worked his way down, Ibrahim, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, and then he made his way to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). And Ibn Hisham said, you know what, we don't need all of this, let's begin with the life and times of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So he deleted the entire section about early history. And he deleted a lot of other information that he felt was not that useful. And so over time, people began copying Ibn Hisham.

And if you want to buy a copy of the book, you have to buy Sirat Ibn Hisham. You're not gonna find Sirat Ibn Ishaq, you're not gonna find that because it is now gone missing.

However, just a side point for the little bit more interested and enthused amongst you. There was a very very famous scholar, Indian, by the name of Dr. Hamidullah. Dr. Hamidullah, very famous scholar. And he lived a very ripe old age, around 93. He just passed away 5 years ago, 6 years, no, actually a little bit, 6-7 years ago. And he was from India, and then he went to France.

And he became one of the greatest scholars in what we call Orientalism, or you know, specializing, studying of Islam amongst non-Muslims. He wrote books in French and in English, and he became a great researcher. And Dr. Hamidullah discovered many manuscripts.

A lot of these manuscripts ended up in Berlin, in Paris, in London. Now how could ancient manuscripts end up over there? Many reasons, of them is colonialism. When the West came, and they started purchasing art items, and they started purchasing ancient things, they have the money, they have the political power.

And so the sad fact to the matter is, some of the most earliest Qurans, we find them in Paris. The earliest Mus'haf that we have is in Paris. And another early Mus'haf is in London. And so on and so forth. So this is just the reality of the state of our Ummah, that when they left, they took all of these treasures with them. Some of them were purchased, some of them were literally just taken by force.

So, after World War I, after all of this, and there's a lot of manuscripts. And it's not just World War I. I mean, to be fair, a lot of them were purchased. So people, when you have pounds, sterling, or American dollars, people are willing to sell items. And so, a lot of these items were purchased by rich businessmen, who just valued it as art. So lots of manuscripts.

And to this day, by the way, the majority of early ancient manuscripts are found in, let's say, Germany. One of the most largest repositories of manuscripts are in Germany. Because Germans had an interest in Islam in the 18th century. So, Hamidullah is obviously a Muslim, he reads full in Arabic and whatnot.

So he's going through all of these treasures, in Germany, in Paris, in London, and he discovered a lot of manuscripts. One of the manuscripts he discovered was a partial copy of Ibn Ishaq. The Ummah had thought Ibn Ishaq is missing and gone. The Ummah had thought, Khalas, there is no more Ibn Ishaq. He discovered around one-fourth of Ibn Ishaq. And so he edited it and published it.

And when now we compare, this is why it's good to have the earlier sources. Because then we can show the people, look, Ibn Hisham didn't just invent Sirah. He's taking it from Ibn Ishaq.

So when he compared Ibn Ishaq with Ibn Hisham, he found that exactly as Ibn Hisham said, he simply cut off around half or around one-third. He just cut off. What did he cut off? Long poetry, the lineage of the Arabs.

So every time Ibn Ishaq would mention a name, he'd take him back to, let's say, Nuh Alayhi Salaam. Lineage of 50-60 people. So Ibn Hisham goes, look, you know what, let's just go back 4-5 people, cut the rest off.

So when he compared the two, he found, yes, Ibn Hisham was accurate in what he did. And therefore, we can now say, Alhamdulillah, for sure, when we read Ibn Hisham, we're reading something written around 100 years after the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) passed away. Amazing, Wallahi, it's amazing.

Far before any book of Hadith. Because Bukhari died 256, Muslim died 261, and so on and so forth. So Ibn Ishaq died 150, he wrote the book around 130 or so. So literally around 100 years after the death of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)a little bit more than 100, we have the majority or the bulk of Ibn Ishaq preserved through Ibn Hisham.

4. Other Sources

So, the third source of Seerah is the books specifically written for the Seerah. The fourth source of Seerah are the books written about the characteristics of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). In Arabic, the word is, Shama'il. A number of early authors, they wanted to describe the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)and they wrote books about his description. Of course, the most famous, you all know this book.

What is the most famous Shama'il? Shama'il Tirmidhi. This is the most famous Shama'il. But there were many Shama'il written. And Shama'il is a genre of books that deals with the looks, the characteristics, the manners, the possessions, the houses of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). It's called Shama'il, specialities.

Another source of Seerah are the books written about the miracles of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). In Arabic, called Dalail. It's another genre of books, Dalail. And there are many books of miracles written. So by looking at the miracles, you can extract Seerah.

Now, the most famous book of Dalail is called Dalail al-Nubuwwah of al-Bayhaqi. And this is around in 12 volumes. It's a massive book, encyclopedia. This is Dalail al-Nubuwwah of al-Bayhaqi.

And then there are other sources of Seerah. There's histories of the Sahaba. So people recorded the histories of the Sahaba. By studying the histories of the Sahaba, you extract Seerah. And then finally we'll mention the histories of Mecca and Medina.

People wrote Tariq Mecca and Tariq Medina. And so by reading the Tariqs of Mecca and Medina, we extract Seerah. And so these are the primary sources of Seerah.

To this, modern people have added sources that were not found in Muslim lands. And this is very difficult and rare. But there's a new genre of research in academia, in Islamic studies here in America and the Western world. What did the Romans say about the Arabs at the time? What did the Persians say? What did the other civilizations say? And what stories did those Arabs tell the Romans? And this is recorded bits and pieces. And this is another complicated topic. But this is not the time and place to get into that.

But some of the sources that now we have access to, earlier scholars did not have access to. So these are the sources of the Seerah.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

Now we begin talking about pre-Islamic Arabia. And we begin by mentioning who exactly the Arabs were. This is a topic now of genealogy. A topic of ethnicity. Who are the Arabs that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) appeared amongst? And this is a topic that Ibn Ishaq himself begins with. The beginning of Ibn Ishaq is the types of Arabs. Who are the Arabs? So, let us begin.

The Arabs amongst you pay attention especially. This is your own lineage. Some of you it is your lineage. Others Allah knows. I say this because most of the Arabs of our times, they might not trace their roots back to the classical Arabs. So for example, when the Arabs conquered Egypt, the Egyptians at the time were not the descendants of these classical Arabs.

When the Arabs conquered Sham and Syria, they were Romans. But eventually the descendants of these Romans became Muslims and they started speaking Arabic. And so what happened was, what we have now, is that the Arab ethnicity is not what it used to be.

And I don't mean this as any type of, it's awkward talking about Arabs when I'm not an Arab. So I mean nothing against the Arabs, believe me. Okay, I love the Arabs, I'm the disclaimer. I love the Arabs, nothing against the Arabs. But the Arabs in our times, they are not the Arabs that we're talking about. The Arabs we're talking about trace their ancestry to specific people.

Most Arabs in our times are not descendants of those people. They have become Arab through culture, through assimilation, through language. But they're not, now some of them are. So some of them they can trace their lineage back to these people. Those are still, this is the Arabs that we are talking about.

Categories of Arabs

So, the scholars have divided Arabs into two broad categories. The first of these categories are the extinct Arabs. Al-Arab al-Ba'idah. Extinct means there are obviously no more. And these are the earliest civilizations that lived in Arabia. Pre-Islam by thousands of years. They're called the extinct Arabs.

They're just a remnant of history. These are the earliest civilizations of humanity in the Arabian Peninsula. And the Quran mentions some of their stories. Such as, who can tell me? Aad and Thamud. These are two of the earliest civilizations. They have nothing to do with the later Arabs.

They're simply called Arabs because they lived in the land that was later called Arabia. It wasn't called Arabia when they were living there. And as far as we know, Thamud is the earliest humanity that we find in the Arabian Peninsula. We don't find any remnants of humanity before Thamud.

Modern archeological evidence suggests that the people of Thamud flourished around 3000 BCE. In other words, 5000 years ago. Flourished, which means they existed maybe a thousand years before then. We have documented evidence of the Thamud flourishing 5000 years ago. And we have the Mada'in of Salih.

We have the civilization of people of Salih which was after Thamud. We have them, we see, we can see, we can walk into their territories. And we can see their living houses and their palaces. And the people of Aad. All of these people, they lived in ancient times before Arabia.

And Ibn Khaldun mentions that these people, they fled from the ancient city of Babel. Babel was the mother of all cities. The Bible tells us that Babel was the mother of all cities. They fled from the ancient city of Babel when there was some civil war and strife. And they made their way to Arabia.

So as far as we know, this is the earliest civilization that we have ever discovered in the Arabian Peninsula. And that is Thamud and Aad and others. What happened to them? Each one of them has its own story. Some Allah destroyed. Some civil war. Some floods and migration. So in any case, all of these Arabs, they completely are extinct. And that's why they're called the extinct Arabs. Al-Arab al-Ba'idah. So that's just a remnant of history.

The second group of Arabs are the Arabs we're interested in. They are called Al-Arab al-Baqiah. The opposite of Ba'idah. They're still remaining.

Al-Arab al-Baqiah: Qahtan and Adnan

Al-Arab al-Baqiah. Now the Al-Arab al-Baqiah are composed of two categories. Al-Arab al-Baqiah are composed of two tribes. Two people. Qahtan and Adnan. These are the Arabs. Qahtan and Adnan.

Qahtan

Who is Qahtan? Who is Adnan? Qahtan is considered to be the father of the Arabs. His son was named Ya'rab or Ya'rib. And Ya'rab or Ya'rib, he is literally the Arab father. The word Arab comes from Ya'rab. The son's name. Qahtan, the father of Ya'rab.

So Ya'rab is where the term Arab comes from. Now later Arabs tried to make a verb out of it that they were passing through when they were Arab and Ya'rib. Allah knows best. It seems a little bit stretch to me

to take a verb. But anyway, the name Ya'rab became the basis of Arab. And it is said that Ya'rab was the first to speak Arabic.

Now once again this is what we find in the books. But a little common sense tells us languages don't just come from one person. Languages evolve. So perhaps Ya'rab was the one who, let's say, began speaking differently. I don't know how you would say this. But they trace language to him. They trace the Arabic language to him. And they trace the Arab race to him. Ya'rab, the son of Qahtan.

So this is called the Qahtani Arabs. Qahtan is his father. Now, who is Ya'rab and who is Qahtan? Amazingly, we don't know. We don't know. Who is Qahtan? There is two or three opinions. Where did he descend from? We all know he descended from Adam.

Okay, Alhamdulillah. But I mean, which branch of Adam? Right, where did he go back to? The majority opinion says that Qahtan was one of the descendants going back a number of generations, back to the son of Nuh called Sam. Now this is something agreed upon. That he was one of the children of Sam.

Who is Sam? Sam is the father of the Semites. What is Semite? Semite means descendants of Sam. Who are the Semites? A group of people who speak, who are ethnically similar, and who speak a similar type of language. The Hebrews, the Aramites of the old, the Arabs. These are all Semites. The Nabataeans, the Nabataeans. These are all Semites.

Now, legend has it, this is not in our tradition. Even though there is a Hadith, which is slightly weak. Hadith is weak. It is not in our tradition. It is found in the Old Testament. Legend has it that Nuh had three sons. Nuh had three sons. First of these, we don't know the first of them, but the one that we are interested in is Sam. Sam is the father of the Semites.

The Hebrew race. The Aramaic speaking peoples. Ibrahim (عليه السلام) is the descendant of Sam. His brother Yafith. Yafith is the father of, they say, the Roman race. The Caucasians, the white peoples. Yafith. And then his brother Ham. And Ham is the father of the Africans.

Now, this is legend. The Bible says it. Our tradition says it. There is a Hadith that also says it. Allah knows best. There is nothing to contradict it. So, we might as well put this. But Sam was one of the children of Nuh. And so, Qahtan, they say, this is the majority opinion.

Qahtan is one of those descendants, not immediate, not the son of Sam, but son of Sam. One of the maybe 10th or 15th, we don't know how many generations. Many generations after Qahtan comes. If this is the case, this means that Qahtan and Ibrahim (عليه السلام) simply come from Sam, but there is no direct connection.

Maybe 10 generations apart or something like this. So, Qahtan is not directly linked to Ibrahim. Another opinion, and this is a minority opinion, is that Qahtan is in fact a descendant of Ibrahim. This is another

opinion. Qahtan is the descendant of Ibrahim. And a third opinion is that, no, Qahtan is in fact a descendant of the Prophet Hud (عليه السلام). And that's a very weak opinion.

And Allah knows best, but the majority position seems to be that Qahtan is not linked to Ibrahim. Qahtan is not linked to Ibrahim. Qahtan is a descendant of Sam. And Ibrahim was also a descendant of Sam. So there is some type of cousinry between them, 10th generation cousins or something like this. There is no direct linkage.

Now, when did Qahtan live? One second, we have no idea, but he is way before Adnan. We have to make it a point. Adnan and Qahtan, we mentioned them together, but they are not the same time. Qahtan is way before Adnan. So we said that his son was Ya'rab. From Ya'rab we get the term Arab, we get the language Arab.

Where did they live? The Qahtanis lived in the southern portion of Arabia. The Qahtanis lived in southern Arabia. And they had a number of dynasties, and kingdoms, and ethnicities. That Saba, the kingdom of Saba, Allah mentions, they were Qahtanis. Himyarites were Qahtanis. Ghassanids were Qahtanis.

These were all from the descendants of Qahtan. The Aus and the Khazraj in Medina were Qahtani. These are called the original Arabs. If you want to know the Arabic, Al-Arab, Al-Arabah. The original Arabs. Why are they called original Arabs? Because they invented Arabic. Or let's say they spoke Arabic. Al-Arab, Al-Arabah. These are the ones who spoke Arabic.

Adnan

This is Qahtan. Adnan, we know much more about Adnan, where there's little difference. Adnan is a well- known guy. Why? Because he's the ancestor of our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم). The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is not Qahtani, he is Adnani. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is Adnani.

He is of the descendants of Adnan. Who is Adnan? Adnan is one of the descendants of the Prophet Ismail (عليه السلام). And Ismail is not a Qahtani. He's from Ibrahim (عليه السلام) right? He's not from that. But obviously they go back to the Semite race. So both Qahtan and Ibrahim are Semites.

But Ibrahim (عليه السلام) is not related to Qahtan as we said. They're simply distant cousins. They go back (عليه السلام) to the same son of Nuh

So, we all know the story of Ismail. We're gonna talk about it next week in a little bit of detail because there's benefits and points we need to understand from the seerah. Ismail is not from Arabia. Where is he from? Ibrahim. Where is Ibrahim from? He is from Iraq.

Ibrahim is from Ur. And Ur is Iraq. Ur is Iraq. Ibrahim is from Ur. And of course Iraq is like the cradle of civilization. Ibrahim is from Iraq.

Ibrahim fled Iraq. He made his way with his cousin, they say Sarah. He made his way through Egypt. The king tried to rape Sarah and kill him. Allah prevented that. So the king gifted him Hajar.

So Hajar is Egyptian. But lineage in Islam is through the father, with all respect to the mother. But the lineage is through the father. And so Hajar is Egyptian. And that is why the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said to the Muslims:

"(Muslim) "You shall conquer Egypt. And when you do so, be good to them, because you have sila, and you have rahim, with the people of Egypt." And that's from Hajar.

So Ibrahim (عليه السلام) is Iraq. He is from Ur. And so Ismail ethnically, is not from Arabia. He is from Iraq.

So Ismail (عليه السلام) as you know the story, we're gonna talk about that next week. He is left as a baby, with his mother Hajar, in Mecca. In an area that the Qahtanis do not inhabit. The Qahtanis are down south. Mecca is in the middle, central, Hijaz. The Qahtanis don't live there.

It's a barren civilization. Sorry, it's a barren land. There is no civilization. It's a barren land. And one of the tribes of Qahtan, Jurhum, passes by. And Ismail marries into the Jurhum.

So Ismail is not Qahtani. Obviously, he cannot be Qahtani. But he marries into the Qahtanis. And so he begins speaking their language, Arabic. And his children, obviously, are now the merging between the Ibrahim (عليه السلام)'s blood and the Qahtanis.

And a few generations down, a luminary appears, by the name of Adnan. Adnan is a direct descendant. How many? We'll talk about, maybe two lessons from now. How many people? We don't know, but we'll talk about. Maybe seven, maybe ten. Between Ismail and Adnan, there's like seven or ten generations. So we can say, around five hundred years, four hundred years, something like this.

Between Adnan and Ismail, we have a hundred years. So, Adnan comes, and from Adnan, the Arab tribes spring forth. All of the Adnani tribes, and the most famous is Quraish. All of them go back to this person, Adnan. And Adnan goes back to Ismail.

Now, Ismail had many other children. And those children had other civilizations, which are not Arab civilizations. So there is an opinion, that the Nabateans, Nabatiyoon, there is an opinion, that the Nabatiyoon, were in fact descendants of Ismail, from another, not Adnan. And the Nabatiyoon are then considered, then to be another civilization, and another language.

Now, the Adnani Arabs, they are called, again this is for the advanced students, those who are interested, Al-Arab al-Musta'ribah. The Arabs who learnt Arabic. The Arabs who were Arabicized.

Why? Because Arabic was not their language. They learnt it from the Al-Arab al-Arabah. They learnt it from the Al-Arab al-Arabah. And as we said, Adnan was the descendant of Ismail, and he was the 20th grandfather.

We have an exact, precise lineage. There is no difference of opinion, amongst all the scholars of genealogy, amongst the Arabs, that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is the 20th offspring. 20 generations, exactly. Between Adnan, and the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is Adnani. He takes his lineage from the Adnan.

Now, the Al-Arab al-Musta'ribah, actually became better in Arabic, than the Al-Arab al-Arabah. Why so, and how so? Because, we're jumping again here again, but just to tidbit, they settled in Central Arabia. And what this meant therefore, is that all of the other tribes of Arabia, would go through them, and to them, and by them.

And because they interacted with all the Al-Arab al-Arabah, and because they're central, they began to take the best of all the Arab cultures. And so after a while, Al-Arab al-Musta'ribah became more powerful, and more eloquent, and became more prestigious than Al-Arab al-Arabah. And that is obviously, why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala therefore, chose the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)to be from the Al-Arab al- Musta'ribah.

So don't think there's a type of deficiency, that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم),comes from Musta'ribah and not Aribah. No, in fact the Musta'ribah became, better and more prestigious than the Aribah.

Conclusion and Methodology

Now, I went into a lot of genealogy, I know some of you are not that interested in this stuff, but we need to understand something, about the history of the Arabs, about the various dynamics between the tribes, about the tensions between the tribes, if we're gonna fully understand the seerah.

And I wanna just conclude and open the floor for question, that my methodology for the seerah class, will inshallah be something very unique and different. It will be more academic than, maybe other seerahs that you have heard. And the purpose is not just to narrate stories, but the purpose is to, tell you a little bit of where they came from, a little bit of is it authentic or not.

Because I think it's very important, we know truth from falsehood. My point is not just to tell you stories, that will make you feel good, but to give you morals and benefits and wisdoms. So after every incident, we wanna pause and ask ourselves, what can we derive from this story? How can we benefit from this story? Especially in light of modern times.

And I will try to be very exhaustive. As you know, this is one of my specialties, seerah. And I have taught seerah four or five times, and this is now, alhamdulillah, yet another time I'm teaching it. And every time I

teach it, I add a little bit and I go more and more, because I love the seerah. It makes me very proud to be a Muslim, to be honest. It really empowers me in my Islam.

It makes me feel that Allah has blessed us with this beautiful religion of Islam. And so I love to read the seerah, I love to go into detail with this. So it will be a little bit frustrating, if you wanna cover the seerah in three weeks, you're not gonna cover this in this class.

I have, in fact, never finished the seerah in English. Because wherever I've moved, years have gone by and I never finished the seerah. I was in Connecticut for five years. I got to the battle of Uhud, I think. I didn't finish. In five years, I wasn't able to finish.

The same because I love going into detail. And so this is my methodology, I mean, that's who I am, I'm sorry. I'm not gonna water this down. This is what I love doing, and I'm gonna take my time doing it, and we're gonna analyze and dissect the seerah. And insha'Allah, my goal is that the seerah is presented in English in a manner that really has not been presented before. Because I go back to the source.

A lot of you ask, what book do you base it on? I don't base it on any modern book. I go back to Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham, to Dalail Nubuwwah al-Bayhaqi, to Tabaqat Ibn Sa'ad. I go back to the original sources. I don't base it on the books that are written in our times, because these all books are written on, based on those classical ones. So, you know, this is, I go directly to the sources.

Recommended Books

But if, and with this we conclude, I open the floor for questions. If you ask me one of the better books of seerah, I will say that the book of somebody who I had the great honor to study with, and my sheikh and my teacher, Sheikh Safiur Rahman Mubarakfuri, has written Ar-Raheek Al-Makhtoom. And this book has a story, and I just want to mention the story, and I encourage you to buy it.

In 1979, WAMI, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Rabit Al-Alam Islamiyah, one of the largest bodies of Islamic scholarship and academics, made an announcement that they want a worldwide competition in books of seerah. They wanted to have a competition to see which book of seerah could be written that was suitable for the modern place and times. And so they made a competition that the entire world can contribute, anybody can contribute, a new book in seerah, and they would choose the best one.

And so over 400 books were written in that one year. Because the grand prize was $100,000 I think, which for the time was quite a lot of money. And so a lot of researchers said, this is a good thing for us, good incentive, let's try to do this. And so out of these 400 books or so, which were written in multiple languages, the book that won first prize was the book of Sheikh Safiur Rahman, my sheikh, and it was called Ar-Raheek Al-Makhtoom, which is the Sealed Nectar.

Ar-Raheek Al-Makhtoom. And it is a book that is very simple, very easy to follow, very beautiful book. It's a very good book, it does the job of the seerah in a very professional and academic manner.

Unfortunately, the English translation is just terrible. It's just completely terrible. I mean, I'm sorry, I can't, you know, it's really bad. The Urdu I've heard is very good. Now the sheikh was Indian, Alhamdulillah. I have some bias here, Alhamdulillah.

The sheikh was Indian, so he could read Urdu. So he approved the Urdu. He wrote it in Arabic. He's an Indian, he wrote it, he never stepped foot in Arabia. And he wrote it in Azamgar, a small village. A small village, right? He told me the story, that he said he literally locked himself up in his library for four months, just going out to eat and to go to the bathroom.

That's all he want. For four months, he locked himself up and he wrote this book Ar-Raheek Al- Makhtoom in very beautiful Arabic. I was really shocked that his Arabic was so strong, even though he had never lived there. And it won first prize. And it's a very good book in Arabic. It's also a very good book in Urdu, from what I've been told.

The Arabic, the English translation is really quite weak. Whoever translated it was not fluent in English. So anybody who reads it in English, understand that the style is much better. But you get the facts. You get the facts in English. So my encouragement to you, if you want something, that you buy Ar-Raheek Al- Makhtoom.

And there's another good book that has some major issues. We're gonna talk about this, but Martin Ling's book. Martin Ling's book, which is basically called The Life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) right? The Life of Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Martin Ling's book is the most eloquent book of Sira in English.

And that's not surprisingly, because Martin Ling's was a professor at Oxford on Shakespeare. And he's a convert to Islam. He converted to Islam. So he was a Shakespearean scholar at Oxford. He's a scholar. And he converted to Islam back in the 60s. And he lived a very quiet life. He wasn't a very public person.

He was a very intellectual, just kept to himself. And he wrote a book of Sira, the English of which cannot be compared to any other book. Because he is a master of English. There's only one problem with the book. And that is there's two or three stories in there that really should not be in there. It's not his fault.

He didn't invent those stories. But he's not a researcher. He's not a scholar. And so he just took some stories that he didn't really think about are they critical or not. And he put them in there. And so this is the problem of that book that there's just really two, three stories that are just downright wrong.

And they can use some fuel and fodder for non-Muslims to say things about our religion. He wrote it at a time and place where Islam was not under attack. He didn't really think through. He just is an innocent man. And he wasn't a scholar in that sense. He was a Shakespeare scholar, not a Hadith scholar.

So this is the problem. But I do encourage you to own the book and to read it. And if you do, then you can download as well. Just do a Google of the problems of Martin Lings and you'll find a PDF or a file

which mentions number of stories that are dangerous, let's say, or incorrect.

So the love story, let's say, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) fell into love with Zaynab. We're gonna get to that someday, inshallah. This is just not true. It's a complete fabrication. And I gave a talk at Yale about this issue. It's a complete fabrication. There was no love story. There was no romance going on.

Unfortunately, he put it in there. And he thought it was because he's a western audience. So for him, romance is a good thing, isn't it? For him, love stories are good stories. So he thought this is a good story, let me put it in. But that's not our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is it? And so there are other issues like this that academically they're not good to have. Otherwise, the book is superb.

So these two books, I think, are books that you should own and purchase and read. And inshallah, as time goes on, we can mention other books as well.

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