English collection
Browse the same fourteen stages as the Arabic Seerah, in source order. Available English selections are attributed to Ibn Hisham; some condense the Arabic account and editorial notes. Stages without translations are marked below.
This section follows the account of the Prophet Muhammad’s birth, his early nursing among Banu Sa‘d, and his return to his mother across printed pages 158–167. The page-by-page English translation distinguishes the transmitted account from the editor’s notes and marks source-text truncation.
ReadIbn Ishaq said: Al-Muttalib ibn Abdullah ibn Qays ibn Makhrama narrated to me from his father, from his grandfather Qays ibn Makhrama, who said: “The Messenger of Allah and I were born in the Year of the Elephant; we were peers in age.”
ReadIbn Ishaq said: Salih ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf narrated to me, from Yahya ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Sa‘d ibn Zurarah al-Ansari. Yahya said: A man from my people narrated to me from Hassan ibn Thabit. Hassan said: “By Allah, I was a young boy of seven or eight, able to remember all that I heard, when I heard a Jewish man calling from atop one of Yathrib’s fortresses: ‘O community of Jews!’ When they gathered around him, they asked, ‘Woe to you! What is the matter?’ He said, ‘Tonight the star under which Ahmad was born has risen.’” Ibn Ishaq later asked Sa‘id ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Hassan how old Hassan was when the Messenger arrived in Medina. He replied that Hassan was sixty and the Messenger was fifty-three; Hassan had therefore been seven when he heard the announcement.
ReadIbn Ishaq said: When his mother gave birth to him, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, she sent word to his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib: “A boy has been born to you. Come and see him.” He came and looked at him, and she told him what she had seen during her pregnancy, what she had been told about the child, and what she had been instructed to name him.
ReadAfter Aminah told Abd al-Muttalib that a boy had been born to him, he came and saw the child. It is related that he took him into the Ka‘bah, prayed there and thanked Allah for what He had granted him, then returned him to his mother. He then sought nursing women for the Messenger of Allah. Ibn Hisham comments on the wording used in the report for seeking infants to be nursed.
ReadIbn Ishaq said that a woman from Banu Sa‘d ibn Bakr, named Halimah bint Abi Dhu’ayb, was chosen to nurse the Messenger of Allah. Abu Dhu’ayb was Abdullah ibn al-Harith ibn Shajnah ibn Jabir ibn Rizam ibn Nasirah ibn Fusayyah ibn Nasr ibn Sa‘d ibn Bakr ibn Hawazin ibn Mansur ibn ‘Ikrimah ibn Khasafah ibn Qays ibn ‘Aylan. The editor records variant readings in some names in the genealogical chain.
ReadTranslation not yet available for this stage.
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Browse stage →06Translation not yet available for this stage.
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Browse stage →Source summaries of other books, separate from the Ibn Hisham stages.
Prophetic Biography
This English edition presents a concise introduction to the Prophet Muhammad's biography and personal qualities. The publisher describes the original work by Dr. Haytham Sarhan as covering his physical and ethical descriptions, kinship, and wives, arranged in tables and sections with review questions.
Dr. Haytham Sarhan
Character and Daily Life
Abdul-Malik al-Qasim's short work offers selected glimpses of the Prophet Muhammad's attributes and virtues, with the stated aim of helping ordinary readers become more familiar with him.
Abdul-Malik al-Qasim; reviewed by Muhammad Abdurraouf
