Other Books, and Some Terms

There are other books that may, or may not, be used — quotations have been taken from some of them, but it is worth being familiar with them. There is al-Minhāj al-Ḥarakī by Munir al-Ghaḍbān. The thing about this book is that the author tries to draw movement lessons from sīrah: he divides sīrah into the secret stage, the public stage, and then goes through the hijrah and the different stages of jihad. So he tries to construct a movement curriculum from sīrah — that is al-Minhāj al-Ḥarakī by Munir al-Ghaḍbān, a recently written book.

And then Fiqh al-Sīrah by Muhammad al-Ghazālī, raḥimahullāh — the good thing about his book is that it has some tarbiyah lessons. And there's also another book with the same name, Fiqh al-Sīrah, by al-Būṭī — by Muhammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī — and al-Būṭī emphasises fiqh; he draws many fiqh lessons from sīrah. And then there is a book called al-Ghurabāʾ by Shaykh Salmān al-ʿAwdah, dealing with the ḥadīth of ṭūbā li-l-ghurabāʾ, the ḥadīth of the strangers, and it tries to draw correlations between the strangers in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and the strangers now. Al-Asās fī al-Sunnah, already talked about, by Saʿīd Ḥawwā, and then The Way to Madīnah by Muhammad al-ʿAbdah, which draws lessons from sīrah. And Fiqh al-Sīrah by al-Būṭī.

Some terminology is worth going over here, since Arabic words are used often without the translation being repeated each time — so the translations are given now, so that their meaning is clear throughout. Ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam means "may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him"; this is what is said when the name of Muhammad (peace be upon him) is heard. Saying it is mandatory the first time the name of Muhammad (peace be upon him) is heard; any other time after that, it becomes recommended. So the first time the name of Muhammad is heard, it is mandatory to say "peace be upon him"; any other time after that, as long as it is within the same sitting, it is recommended. So that is the ruling on the ṣalāh and salām upon him, wa al-salāmu ʿalā al-Nabī Muḥammad ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam.

Rasūlullāh: the word Rasūlullāh means the messenger of Allah. Jāhiliyyah — this is a word that will recur. Jāhiliyyah is the ignorance of the pre-Islamic era; it isn't only a time period, it's also a concept. Whenever there is a time that resembles the pre-Islamic era, it is called jāhiliyyah, and it is found that Sayyid Quṭb uses this word a lot in reference to the time being lived in now — he says there's a lot of resemblance between it and the early jāhiliyyah. So jāhiliyyah comes from the word jahl, which is ignorance; it's a time of ignorance, the absence of the message. Even if the message is there but the people aren't following it, it is a jāhiliyyah. Īmān: faith. Jannah: Paradise. Nār: Hellfire.

This last point recaps the difference between ḥadīth scholars and sīrah scholars, already discussed: ḥadīth scholars are more stringent about narrations, fearing wrong rulings; sīrah scholars are less stringent, because they wanted to gather the stories, and were flexible in the narrations. And this book uses a combined approach: ḥadīth is used, and in situations where there is no ḥadīth, the gaps are filled by referring to sīrah.

This has been an introduction to the sīrah. Inshāʾallāhu taʿālā, the next chapter turns to some background history.

Ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam. Subḥānaka Allāhumma wa bi-ḥamdika, ashhadu an lā ilāha illā anta, astaghfiruka wa atūbu ilayk.