Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya (al-Nadwi)

Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya is Abu al-Hasan 'Ali al-Hasani al-Nadwi's biography of the Prophet. It was first published in 1397 AH/1977 CE by Dar al-Shuruq in Jeddah, went through further printings with additions in the author's lifetime, and was translated into Urdu, Hindi, English, Turkish and Indonesian. ¹ The author's biography dates its composition to 1976. ⁴

• In the preface to the first edition al-Nadwi says the Sira was the first school he learned in as a child. He learned it in his family's home and from what he read in Urdu, then in Arabic from Ibn Hisham's Sira and Ibn al-Qayyim's Zad al-Ma'ad. ⁵
• He says he felt the need for a biography written in a modern, scholarly style. It would rest on the earliest sources of the Sira, agree with the Qur'an and sound Sunna, and avoid the encyclopaedic manner that piles up information without criticism. It would not imitate modern trends or defer to the orientalists' writings, and would treat the Sira as that of a prophet sent by God, "not the life of one great man among others". ⁶
• He wants reason and feeling to stand side by side: scholarship should not come at the cost of love and faith, nor feeling at the cost of the needs of reason. The book should serve non-Muslims as well as Muslims. ⁷
• He holds that a student of the Sira must know the "world-wide Jahiliyya" of the sixth century CE and the state of Arabia, Mecca, Yathrib and the neighbouring empires. He says he first gathered that material from European works for his book Madha Khasira al-'Alam bi-Inhitat al-Muslimin?. ⁸

The book has seven chapters: ³

1. Introduction to the Sira: the religions of the sixth century (Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Brahmanism and Arab paganism); the empires (Byzantium, Sasanian Iran, India and Europe); Arabia; Quraysh, Qusayy and the Banu Hashim; the Elephant; and Mecca at the time of the mission, with its buildings, trade and offices.
2. From birth to the mission: lineage, nursing and guardianship, the story of Bahira, the marriage to Khadija, the rebuilding of the Ka'ba, and Hilf al-Fudul.
3. The Meccan period: the cave of Hira' and revelation, the first Muslims, the public call, persecution, the emigration to Abyssinia, the boycott in the valley, al-Ta'if, the Night Journey and Ascension, and the Prophet's approach to the tribes.
4. The emigration to Medina: the Ansar's conversion, the two pledges of 'Aqaba and the character of Yathrib.
5. The Medinan period: from the Hijra to the Prophet's death.
6. Character and qualities.
7. What the Muhammadan mission gave humanity, and its universal gifts.

On Hilf al-Fudul he tells the story from Ibn Kathir's Sira. A man of Zubayd sold goods to al-'As ibn Wa'il, who withheld his due, and men met in the house of 'Abd Allah ibn Jud'an and pledged to stand with the wronged. He then quotes the Prophet's saying that he had witnessed this pact. ⁹ He adds his own reading: the pact was prompted not by one man's case but by unease at the disorder after the Fijar war, and by the need for security and for protecting strangers and traders. ¹⁰ The editor's note gives the views on the name and weakens the report "I witnessed no pact of Quraysh except the pact of the Mutayyabun". ¹¹

This is the Dar Ibn Kathir edition (Damascus and Beirut; 12th printing, the house's 3rd, 1425 AH/2004 CE), edited and annotated by Sayyid 'Abd al-Majid al-Ghawri. ^{12 13} The editor says he added the author's additions from the Lucknow printing of the Academy of Islamic Research (1416 AH/1995 CE), checked the text against its sources, traced the reports and glossed rare words. He also added 41 coloured maps, an introduction by 'Imad al-Din Khalil written for the seventh printing, a biography of the author, tables of campaigns from al-Mansurpuri's Rahmat lil-'Alamin, and indexes. ¹⁴