Seerah — Prophetic Biography

The life and legacy of the Prophet (peace be upon him)

Lessons in this course (6)

Makkah: the shaping years — Thirteen years separate the cave of Hira from the road to Madinah — years of private then public call, ridicule, boycott, and loss. The revelation of this perio…
Madinah: building a community — The arrival sequence is a curriculum in priorities: a mosque built first — worship and assembly at the centre; the muakhah — each emigrant paired with a Madinan…
The Hijrah: the turning point — The Hijrah of 622 CE was not a flight in panic. It followed two pledges at Aqabah in which Madinah’s tribes formally took the Prophet ﷺ as leader; believers mig…
The final years: conquest, farewell, and passing — In 8 AH (630 CE) the Prophet ﷺ entered Makkah at the head of ten thousand — the city that had starved, tortured and expelled his people — and took it almost wit…
The Companions: the generation he built — Abu Bakr, the first adult man to believe and the closest friend. Umar, whose conversion emboldened the Muslims to pray publicly. Uthman, who compiled the mushaf…
Reading the seerah with a critical eye — Ibn Ishaq (d. 150 AH) wrote the earliest full biography, surviving mainly through Ibn Hisham's edited recension. Al-Waqidi and Ibn Saʿd added detail on campaign…