[SB] Sifat al Sofwah / صفة الصفوة

It is vital for every single human being to study the life of the greatest man to have ever walked this earth, a man who changed the course of human history forever. No other individual has had such a lasting influence or impact in any sphere of human endeavor; be it history, culture, economics, social welfare, politics, diplomatic relations or warfare.

Today’s modern society owes a huge debt to Muhammad, the great Prophet of Islam. This brief, yet comprehensive, work covers all the main aspects of the life of the Messenger of Allah. It includes his noble qualities, his description, members of his family – such as his maternal uncles and aunts and wives, the slaves he freed, the scribes who recorded for him, his envoys who carried his Message to various kings and territories around the globe, those who proclaimed the Call to prayer, his Umrah and Hajj, his military expeditions, his manners, his miracles, his riding beasts, his weapons and the legal rulings that were unique to him.

Knowing about the Prophet Muhammad is compulsory for every Muslim. This work is an excellent primer and should be necessary reading in every Muslim home. This book is ideal as a teaching tool for Schools and Madrassahs everywhere.

The author, Imam an-Nawawi (d. 767H), was a leading personality of Islamic history. Born in Syria to a deeply religious family, he was renowned for his piety and love of Allah, the Most High. He authored many valuable works, in a variety of different sciences, which gained eminence throughout the Muslim world.

In ‘Early Sources for Prophet Muhammad’s Biography’, Dr. Muhammad Saeed Mitwally aims to prove that applying Western methods of critical analysis to the available Muslim sources can take us back to early, reliable information about the Prophet (sa).

Early Western biographies of the Prophet of Islam (sa) were largely based upon the Qur’an, as well as upon the late Muslim sources dating from the sixteenth century. After the publication of Goldziher’s Muhammedanische Studien in 1890, the reliability of Muslim sources became controversial. This stance was intensified by the publication of Schacht’s The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, in which he claimed that none of the Hadith literature is authentic. In this book, Dr. Muhammad Saeed Mitwally successfully challenges some of the problems raised by the pessimistic attitude.

Students of Hadith will find this study thought-provoking and informative.

36 Chapters Covering all aspects of the Prophets (S)  life, from when he was a boy, events before the First Revelation, life in Makkah , held to high esteem s, and then the persecution and trials inflicted by the them,  right through the details of the the migration to Madinah, the battles, the return to Makkah and its opening back to Islam through to the death of the Prophet (S).

Appendix I on the Family Tree of the Prophet

Appendix II-  An Overview of events in the Life of the Prophet

This superb book is indeed a rich storehouse of knowledge, a lighthouse of guidance and an inspiration for mankind.

-Well organised with clear defined chapters.

-Steady Qur’anic Revelations in English throughout the books as and when they were revealed, and the  particular situation and context of revelation

The forerunners those who came first among the Migrators and the Helpers and those who followed them with the best. Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him and Allah has prepared for them gardens beneath which rivers flow therein forever and that is the great success. {TMQ At-Taubah 9: 100}