Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

Product Information

W. Montgomery Watt (1984). "Review of Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, by M. Lings". Religious Studies. 20 (3): 504–5. Sacred Art of Shakespeare: To Take Upon Us the Mystery of Things ( Inner Traditions, 1998) 0892817178 Review by Dr Asma Afsaruddin, Indiana University. Quoted by Reza Shah-Kazemi in "A Truly Holy Soul", Q-News no. 363, June 2005 [ permanent dead link]. Lings’ thoroughly confused attempt at forcing those of the right, the righteous, the slaves of God and the foremost into his own special concept of a spiritual hierarchy (LXXXI, 329, 2) stems from a similar penchant for speculative originality in disregard of qualified sources.

A Sufi saint of the twentieth century: Shaikh Ahmad al-°Alawi, his spiritual heritage and legacy ( Islamic Texts Society, 1993) ISBN 0-946621-50-0He married with the wife of Zaid Bin Harsa because he was impressed with the beauty of the wife this influenced Zaid to divorce her. He recited these words after the Angel, who thereupon left him, and he said: “It was as though the words were written on my heart.”’ But he feared that this might mean he had become a jinn-inspired poet or a man possessed. So he fled from the cave, and when he was halfway down the slope of the mountain he heard a voice above him saying: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” He raised his eyes heavenwards and there was his visitant, still recognizable but now clearly an Angel, filling the whole horizon, and again he said: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” The Prophet stood gazing at the Angel; then he turned away from him, but whichever way he looked the Angel was always there, astride the horizon, whether it was to the north, to the south, to the east or to the west. Finally the Angel turned away, and the Prophet descended the slope and went to his house.

There are many other accounts where writer clearly fell short of giving essential details, the Quraish boycott, preaching in Taif and Battle of Hunain is among some of them. A Spiritual Giant" (PDF) (363ed.). Q News. June 2005 . Retrieved 4 July 2013. [ permanent dead link] Lings was born in Burnage, Manchester in 1909 to a Protestant family. The young Lings gained an introduction to travelling at a young age, spending significant time in the United States due to his father's employment.Then he would return to his family, and sometimes on his return he took more provisions and went again to the mountain. During these few years it often happened that after he had left the town and was approaching his hermitage he would hear clearly the words “Peace be on thee, O Messenger of God,” and he would turn and look for the speaker but no one was in sight, and it was as if the words had come from a tree or a stone. Ramadan was the traditional month of retreat, and it was one night towards the end of Ramadan, in his fortieth year, when he was alone in the cave, that there came to him an Angel in the form of a man. The Angel said to him: “Recite!” and he said: “I am not a reciter,” whereupon, as he himself told it, “the Angel took me and whelmed me in his embrace until he had reached the limit of mine endurance. Then he released me and said: ‘Recite!’ I said: ‘I am not a reciter,’ and again he took me and whelmed me in his embrace, and again when he had reached the limit of mine endurance he released me and said: ‘Recite!’, and again I said ‘I am not a reciter.’ Then a third time he whelmed me as before, then released me and said:

The biography has gone through many reprints in English and it has been translated and published into many languages [4] including French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Dutch, Malay and Tamil. For Lings himself, however, the most important event whilst at Oxford was his discovery of the writings of René Guénon, a French metaphysician and Muslim convert, and those of Frithjof Schuon, a German spiritual authority, metaphysician and Perennialist. In 1938, Lings went to Basel to make Schuon's acquaintance. This prompted him to embrace the branch of the Alawiyya tariqa led by Schuon. Thereafter, Lings remained Schuon's disciple and expositor for the rest of his life. [4] Career [ edit ] In 1939, Lings went to Cairo, Egypt, to visit a friend who was an assistant of René Guénon. Soon after arriving in Cairo, his friend died and Lings began studying Arabic. Cairo became his home for over a decade; he became an English language teacher at the University of Cairo and produced Shakespeare plays annually. [5] Lings married Lesley Smalley in 1944 and lived with her in a village near the pyramids. [6] Despite having settled comfortably in Egypt, Lings was forced to leave in 1952 after anti-British disturbances. [7] Lings in 1948. The allegation that Badr War was resulted from the intention of Muhammad to rob the Quraish trade convoy led by Abu Sufyan - this is totally baseless.He travelled to Egypt in 1940, originally to visit a friend who was lecturing at Cairo University. During the visit, his friend died in a riding accident and Lings was offered the post. It was at about this time that he converted to Islam, and was soon imbued with the Sufi dimension of the religion. He found the critique of modern civilisation by the French Muslim writer, René Guénon, particularly convincing and shared his "universalism", within the context of Islam. a b c d e "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources: Revised Edition: Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din)". Islamic Bookstore.com . Retrieved 1 July 2013. The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination ( World of Islam Festival Trust, 1976) ISBN 0-905035-01-1

The revelation of denouncing Zaid Bin Harsa from the name of Muhammad as his son to pave the way to marry his ex-wife. The Secret of Shakespeare: His Greatest Plays seen in the Light of Sacred Art (1998), Quinta Essentia, distributed by Archetype, (hb), ISBN 1-870196-15-5 Lings uses a more archaic style of English to depict conversations and translations of the Qur'an, which helps slows down the rapid flow of the narration. The focus in the book is less about the teachings of Islam and more about Muhammad. [3] 1991 edition [ edit ] A writer throughout this period, Lings' output increased in the last quarter of his life. While his thesis work on Ahmad al-Alawi had been well-regarded, his most famous work was a biography of Muhammad, written in 1983, which earned him acclaim in the Muslim world and prizes from the governments of Pakistan and Egypt. His work was hailed as the "best biography of the prophet in English" at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad.[2] He also continued travelling extensively, although he made his home in Kent. He died in 2005.

There a couple of other Seerah/biography books on the life of prophet Muhammad (PBUH-SAW) including Betty Kelen: Muhammad the Messenger of God was not just a primer for famialirising yourself with Islam but it has a much deeper insight into the politics of Arabia at the time, than it appears. Highly recommend people to read this book by Betty Kelen as an independent account from a non-Muslim. As well as Sheikh Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarkpuri book entitled: Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar) - First Prize Winner book in Saudi Arabia in1979.This was also excellent biography of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which is a very detailed book that gives a very comprehensive account of the prophet's life and times within a wider historical context of events that unfolded on the Arabian peninsula at the time. Khalid Yahya writes that Lings' book brings early Islamic accounts, many of which are scattered, into a single narrative according to Ibn Ishaq's chronological scheme. According to Yahya, Lings successfully presents what most Muslims believe, and have believed throughout history, about Muhammad. [10] W. Montgomery Watt agrees that Lings' book gives an idea of how Muhammad is seen by Muslims. He points out that the book was based on the earliest Islamic sources, and where there is a difference of opinion in those sources, the book takes the most widely accepted view; and that Lings simply accepts the early Islamic sources without discussing their value. [11] Hamza Yusuf hails this work as "one of the great biographies of the English language," praising "the historical accuracy of the text and the providential care so evident in the author's choice of versions as well as the underlying structure of the story as he chose to tell it." He also reports from Lings how while writing this book, "he was overwhelmed with the presence of the Prophet during the entire time and felt a great blessing in having been able to complete it." [7] Lings was born in Burnage, Manchester, in 1909 to a Protestant family. [2] The young Lings gained an introduction to travelling at a young age, spending significant time in the United States because of his father's employment. Lings attended Clifton College [3] and went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a BA in English Language and Literature. At Magdalen, he was a student and then a close friend of C. S. Lewis. After graduating from Oxford Lings went to Vytautas Magnus University, in Lithuania, where he taught Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. [2] Lings might have been content to remain in Egypt for the rest of his life, but political events intervened. Abdul Nasser's nationalist revolution was preceded by savage anti-British riots, in which three of Lings's colleagues were killed, and the British university staff were dismissed without recompense.