Muhammad The Best Of Creation pdf download

Muhammad The Best Of Creation A Glimpse Of His Blessed Life Sayyid Muhammad ibn  ‘AlawI al-MalikI al-Hasan Translated By Amjad Mahmood

Book foreword

The Prophetic sciences and the Muhammadan qualities are among the greatest matters that one should be fully apprised of and to which one should devote one’s attention.

The scholars have therefore authored many works on this science, including elaborations of historical accounts, the Prophet’s characteristics, words, actions, judgments and so forth.

Among such works, one finds both succinct and extensively detailed works, each in accordance with the level of the author’s knowledge and the extent of his understanding.

When I saw that [people’s] enthusiasm for reading such books had waned, I hastened to gather a comprehensive abridgment of the Messenger’s life, comprising two parts.

The first part attends to that which is associated with him in terms of his early life, his sons, daughters, wives, paternal and maternal uncles and aunts, wet-nurses, brothers and sisters through suckling, freed slaves, servants, bodyguards, scribes, letters, envoys and governors, the mounts that he rode, his weapons, clothing, miracles and so forth.

The second part is a very brief chronological summary of the events that took place during the Prophetic era, beginning from the second year after his birth until his return to his Lord.

Birth

He was born on Monday during the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal in the Year of the Elephant.³ There are various narrations which contend that [he was born] on the second, or the eighth, or the ninth⁴ or the twelfth of the month. This [latter date] is the popular opinion amongst the majority [of scholars].

His mother did not experience any heaviness or any cravings [for certain foods whilst pregnant]. Some have mentioned that she experienced heaviness at the beginning of conception and then lightness thereafter as the pregnancy progressed; thus it was, on either account, an extraordinary pregnancy.

He was born circumcised and cheerful, with his fingers clenched except for his index finger which was pointing [upwards] like someone who is glorifying Allah by the index finger [pointing upwards] (tasbif:,,). It has also been narrated that his grandfather circumcised him#}, on the seventh day [after his birth].5

There is disagreement [amongst scholars] over the duration of the pregnancy: some have said it was nine months, which is the popular opinion, while others have said six [months].

Monday is a blessed day, since it has been related from Imam Ahmad that he said: ‘Ibn ‘Abbas said, “The Prophet, was born on a Monday, commissioned with Prophethood on a Monday, passed away on a Monday, left as a migrant from Mecca to Medina on a Monday, arrived in Medina on a Monday and raised the Black Stone on a Monday.”‘

On the night of his birth, astonishing things and strange phenomena occurred, such as many of the idols falling on their faces and from their places, light emerging with him as he was born, such that the palaces of Sham were illuminated, the palace of Chosroes trembled and its balconies collapsed, the extinguishing of the Persian foe which had not been extinguished for a thousand years prior and the lake of Sawah6 drying up.

Nurse-maids and wet-nurses

The first woman to suckle him was his mother Lady Aminah al-Zahriyyah, followed by Thuwaybah al-Aslamiyyah for a number of days. Thuwaybah was Abu Lahab’s slave whom he set free when she brought to him the good news of the Messenger’s

birth; subsequently, Allah somewhat alleviated [his punishment in the hellfoe] because of his happiness with his birth, as related by al-Bukhari with a mursaf chain of transmission. [It is further narrated that] Abu Lahab was seen after his death [in a dream] in which he mentioned that his punishment is lessened every Monday because he freed Thuwaybah out of joy with the Messenger of Allah’s , birth.

Ibn Mandah8 considered Thuwaybah to be one of the Companions, but other scholars have disagreed. Thuwaybah used to visit Allah’s Messenger after he married Khadijah, and he would honor her, as would Khadijah. He continued to send her clothes and gifts after migrating [to Medina] until she passed