Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

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His contribution to Shakespeare scholarship was to point out the deeper esoteric meanings found in Shakespeare's plays, and the spirituality of Shakespeare himself. More recent editions of Lings's books on Shakespeare include a foreword by Charles, Prince of Wales. [11] Just before his death he gave an interview on this topic, which was posthumously made into the film Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective. An Interview With Dr. Martin Lings. [12] Books [ 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 Secret of Shakespeare: His Greatest Plays Seen in the Light of Sacred Art, Quinta Essentia, Cambridge, 1996. The late Martin Lings’ (also known as Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din) Muhammad ﷺ: His Life Based On The Earliest Sources is among the seerah books written in English that have received widespread acclaim. Originally published in 1983, the book continues to be among highly-ranked seerah literature in the English language and read by scholars and laypeople alike. The book stands out from the rest as Lings (d. 2005), a Shakespearean scholar, spares no rhetorical device in his prose. For example, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf has said of his work, The Quranic Art of Calligraphy and Illumination ( World of Islam Festival Trust, 1976) ISBN 0-905035-01-1Among his 12 books was The Eleventh Hour (1987), a profound study of the spiritual crisis of the mod- ern world, for which he had prepared the ground with Ancient Beliefs And Modern Superstitions (1965), and What Is Sufism? (1975), a corrective to many mis- understandings about this aspect of Islam. Symbol And Archetype: A Study Of The Meaning Of Existence (1991) demonstrated his grasp of traditional symbolism. The word seerah linguistically means a path. In referring to a person’s life, it refers to the path they have traversed. The seerah of the Prophet ﷺ is its own genre of literature: a realm of study with principles, codification, and systems. It encompasses all of that which is associated with the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ. Within seerah literature, there are different sub-genres, including the shama’il (collection of Hadiths about the appearance, mannerisms, belongings, etc. of the Prophet ﷺ), wives of the Prophet ﷺ, comparative literature looking at the Mecca and Medina years, military expeditions, and much more. 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] Upon its first edition, the book was subject to criticism by some Muslims who decried the "Perennialist poison" in the book. The author gave public answer in a Saudi newspaper to the objections. [13] Awards [ edit ] A Spiritual Giant" (PDF) (363ed.). Q News. June 2005 . Retrieved 4 July 2013. [ permanent dead link]

The Eleventh Hour: the Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of Tradition and Prophecy (2002), Archetype, ISBN 1-901383-01-6 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 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] Splendors of Qur'an Calligraphy And Illumination (2005), Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0-500-97648-1 Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources ( Islamic Texts Society, 1983) ISBN 978-0-946621-33-0 (World-UK edn) / ISBN 978-1-59477-153-8 (US edn)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: 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.

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.Lings is at his weakest in one of his final chapters entitled “The Degrees” (LXXXI), which is replete with incautious interpretations or misreporting of Quran and Hadith. Inherent in the reality of degrees and levels in the Religion is the notion of the elite of humankind, the Believers, and the elite of the Believers, the Friends of God. However, Lings turns this notion into a skewed elitism which characterizes the massive majority of people as blind (LXXXI, 329, 3): “Degrees of superiority are also implied by the Revelation in its mention of the heart. In speaking of the majority, it says: Not blind are the eyes, but blind are the hearts within the breasts.” The commentaries are clear that it is not “the majority” at all who are meant but the disbelievers in general, and the disbelievers of Mecca at the time of the Prophet in particular. His interest in the symbolism of colours found expression in his talent for gardening. From his home in Kent, he would search far and wide for a particular specimen, seeking, for example, a shade of blue that perfectly reflected the perfection of heaven. In 1983, the book was selected as the best biography of Muhammad in English at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad. This book was also given "National Seerah Award" by the government of Pakistan. [14] [15] [16] Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings". Archived from the original on 24 July 2008 . Retrieved 6 February 2007.

Includes important additions about the prophet’s spread of Islam into Syria and its neighboring states Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p399: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948Buletin Al-Islamiyah Media Kajian dan Dakwah Universitas Islam Indonesia http://alislamiyah.uii.ac.id