Why We Tell This Story, and the World Before It

So far, we have met Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: his special gifts, his precious face, and his gentle and kind heart. Now, before we begin his life story, let us ask two simple questions. First: why should we learn his story at all? And second: what was the world like just before he was born?

Once we answer these, we will be all set to begin at the very beginning.

What Does the Word “Seerah” Mean?

The story of the Prophet’s life has a special name. We call it the Seerah.

The word Seerah comes from an Arabic word that means to travel, or to journey. Is that not sweet? When we learn the Seerah, it is as if we are travelling along the Prophet’s own path, walking in his footsteps, going where he went, and seeing what he saw. That is exactly what this book is: a journey in his footsteps.

Why Should We Learn His Story?

There are many amazing reasons. Here are some of the best ones.

• Because Allah asks us to. In the Qur’an, Allah tells us that the Messenger of Allah is the most moving example for us to follow. If we want to know how to be kind, honest, patient, and good, we look at him. Allah sent a real human being, not an angel, so that we would have someone just like us to follow.

• Because it grows our love for him. The best way to love someone more is to learn about them. When you love a person, you want to know everything about them. So the more we learn the Prophet’s story, the more we love him. And the more we love him, the more we want to learn.

• Because it helps us understand the Qur’an. Many verses of the Qur’an were sent down during real moments in the Prophet’s life. Once you know the story behind a verse, the words come alive and make so much more sense.

• Because it gives us hope and courage. The Prophet ﷺ and his companions went through very hard times, and Allah helped them through. When we read how they stayed strong, our own hearts feel braver and more hopeful. Even the Prophet ﷺ was comforted by hearing the stories of the prophets before him.

• Because his whole life is a miracle. Think about it: a man who never went to school, living in a rough desert land with no libraries or great cities, brought a message that changed the whole world in just a few years. Only Allah could make that happen. His life itself is proof that he was truly sent by Allah.

• Because we can then stand up for him. People have said untrue and unkind things about the Prophet ﷺ since his own time until today. When we know his real story, we can kindly and truthfully defend the person we love.

• Because we meet the best people who ever lived. To learn the Prophet’s story is also to meet his companions, the finest generation of people who ever walked the earth. Allah said about them, “Allah is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Allah,” and the Prophet ﷺ said, “The best generation is my generation.” Ibn Mas’ud once explained that Allah looked into the hearts of all people and chose the purest heart of all to be the heart of Muhammad ﷺ, and then chose the purest hearts after his to be his companions. So along the way we get to know Abu Bakr, Umar, Anas, Jabir, Sa’d ibn Mu’adh, Talha, Zubayr, and many more, and our own faith grows just by hearing of their courage, their sacrifices, and their patience. Every one of them is a role model for us. As one saying goes, “My companions are like the stars: whichever one you follow, you will be guided.”

When you think about it, learning the Prophet’s story means learning about the best of everything.

It is the story of the best person who ever lived. The Prophet ﷺ himself said, “I am the leader of the children of Adam, and I say this not out of pride.” It is the story of the best time in history, the time when he walked the earth. It is the story of the best people who ever lived, his companions. And it all happened in the best places on earth, Makkah and Madinah, the two holy cities. So from every angle you look at it, the story of the Prophet ﷺ is the best of the best of the best of the best.

Thats why in early Islamic era, Muslim families used to teach their children the Seerah right alongside the Qur’an, just like any other important lesson. It makes a much better bedtime story than tales of make-believe heroes, because this hero was real, and he was the best of all people.

How Do We Know His Story?

You might wonder: this all happened more than 1,400 years ago, so how do we know what really happened? That is a very good question, and the answer is sweet.

Our first and greatest source is the Qur’an, the words of Allah Himself, which were revealed during the Prophet’s life. Our second source is the hadith, the sayings and doings of the Prophet ﷺ, carefully remembered by the people who were with him. And third, very early on, careful scholars wrote everything down in books, always noting exactly who heard the story from whom, all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. Muslims were very careful about the truth. They did not just pass on any tale. They checked, “Who told you this? And who told them?” This careful chain is something special that helps us trust what we read.

The World Before the Prophet ﷺ

Now let us travel back in time and look at the land where our story takes place: Arabia.

Arabia was a hot, dry land of deserts, with very few towns. Most people lived in tribes, large families who moved from place to place looking for water and grazing for their animals. There were no great libraries, no tall buildings, and most people could not even read or write. In many ways, it was a rough and simple place. And yet, this is exactly where Allah chose to send the greatest human being of all. That makes what happened next even more amazing.

Where the Arabs Came From

Let us learn a little about the family tree of the Arabs, because it leads us straight to the Prophet ﷺ.

Long, long ago, after the time of Prophet Nuh (Noah), peace be upon him, his descendants spread out across the earth and became many different peoples. From one of Nuh’s sons came the family of peoples that included the Arabs.

The very earliest Arabs lived so long ago that their great tribes have completely disappeared. You may have heard of two of them in the Qur’an: the people of ’Ad and the people of Thamud. They built and lived in Arabia thousands of years ago, but their time passed and they are now gone. We call them the “lost Arabs.”

The Arabs who came later can be thought of as two big branches of one family. The first branch were the southern Arabs, who lived in the green lands of the south (the area we now call Yemen). They came from a forefather named Qahtan, and they were the very first to speak the Arabic language.

The second branch, and this is the important one for us, were the northern Arabs, and they lead us to the Prophet ﷺ. To understand them, we need to remember a much-loved prophet: Ibrahim (Abraham), peace be upon him.

Prophet Ibrahim came from the faraway land of Iraq. By Allah’s command, he brought his wife Hajar and their baby son Ismail (Ishmael) to a bare, empty valley with no people and no water at all. That valley would one day become the holy city of Makkah.

As baby Ismail grew, a travelling tribe called Jurhum passed by the valley and settled near them. Ismail grew up among them, learned to speak their Arabic, and married into their tribe. So although his father Ibrahim was not from Arabia, Ismail became part of the Arab people.

Many years and many grandchildren later, from the family of Ismail came a man named Adnan. And from Adnan grew many, many Arab tribes of the north, including one very special tribe called the Quraysh. The Quraysh settled right in the middle of Arabia, in Makkah, around the holy house that Ibrahim and Ismail had built. And the Quraysh, dear reader, was the tribe of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

So here is the marvellous thread that ties it all together: Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was a descendant of Prophet Ismail, the son of Prophet Ibrahim, peace be upon them all. He came from a family of prophets.

Ready to Begin

Now we know why this story is worth learning, how we came to know it, and the world it took place in. We have even met the Prophet’s great-grandfathers of long ago.

But before we reach the day the Prophet ﷺ was born, there is one more thing we need to see: the world he was born into. For by his time, people had drifted far from the pure teaching of Ibrahim, and the whole earth had grown dim and confused. In the next chapter, we will look at what people believed in those dark days, how idols crept into the holy city of Makkah, and the few good souls who kept searching for the truth, a world holding its breath, waiting for the light.