The Two Primary Sources

Now, what are the sources used? Two primary sources are used for this book. The first, the sīrah of Ibn Kathīr. Ibn Kathīr didn't write a book called Sīrah — Ibn Kathīr wrote an encyclopedia of history called al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah, The Beginning and the End, and it is literally the beginning and the end. He started from the beginning of creation and went all the way until people entered al-Jannah wa al-Nār. One of these volumes is about the life of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), another volume is about the prophets, and then he has a volume about al-Khilāfah al-Rāshidah, and al-Khilāfah al-Umawiyyah, and al-Khilāfah al-ʿAbbāsiyyah — he wrote all the way up to his own time. And then the last volume is about al-fitan, the signs of the Day of Judgment, and then the Day of Judgment, and then al-Jannah wa al-Nār. So his part on sīrah is taken as a primary source, and the reasons for choosing Ibn Kathīr as the primary source are given below.

The second book drawn on in the compilation of these notes is Ṣaḥīḥ al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah by Ibrāhīm al-ʿAlī.