Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

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References used are Ibn Ishaq (references here are to Ferdinand Wüstenfeld's edition of Sirat Rasul Allah, a life of the Prophet by Muhammad ibn Ishaq in the annotated recension of Ibn Hisham). Also Ibn Sa’ad (the references are to John Leyden's edition of Kitab al-Tabaqat al Kabir by Muhammad ibn Sa’d). Also there is Al-Waqidi (and the references are to Marsden Jones' edition of Kitab al Maghazi, A Chronicle of the Prophet's Campaigns, by Muhammad ibn Umar al- Waqidi). [2] a b Youssuf, Maha (8 July 2011). "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources". The Muslim Tribune . Retrieved 1 July 2013. The Eleventh Hour: the Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of Tradition and Prophecy (2002), Archetype, ISBN 1-901383-01-6 This book is not a melodramatic or emotional account of the Prophet Muhammad. For that, you have to look elsewhere. It is instead a beautifully composed account of the Prophet Muhammad based directly on some of the earliest sources to the Prophet Muhammad including Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, Waqidi, Azraqi, Tabari, and Suhayli.

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.Martin Lings was an English writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar. He is best known as the author of a very popular and positively reviewed biography, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, first published in 1983 and still in print. Includes important additions about the prophet’s spread of Islam into Syria and its neighboring states 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. 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. a b c "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources". Fons Vitae. Archived from the original on 1 July 2013 . Retrieved 1 July 2013.

Mustafaa al Kanadee, Aboo Bilaal. "Perinnialist Poison in Martin Lings' Biography of the Prophet: A Discussion with Martin Lings" (PDF). Fandango. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2013 . Retrieved 4 July 2013. A Spiritual Giant" (PDF) (363ed.). Q News. June 2005 . Retrieved 4 July 2013. [ permanent dead link] Hernandez, Aaminah (14 July 2005). "Best Biographies of the Prophet Muhammad". OnIslam . Retrieved 1 July 2013. 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. 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.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. [8] His work was hailed as the "best biography of the prophet in English" at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad. [9] He also continued travelling extensively, although he made his home in Kent. He died on 12 May 2005. [6] The Secret of Shakespeare: His Greatest Plays Seen in the Light of Sacred Art, Quinta Essentia, Cambridge, 1996. 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: