The Prophets Of Allah

Prophet Mohammed Pbuh (Seerah and Its Importance)

Before we discuss the life of the prophet PBUH we must discuss pre-islamic arabia. In order to understand the seerah we must begin with the world at his time - this is why every single book on the seerah has a number of introductory sections.

What does the word seerah mean? It means to traverse or to journey. It is derived from the root word which means to travel - and the reason why seerah is called seerah is because you are travelling his journey, following his footsteps. And this is also why the 'seerah' is exclusively for the biography of the prophet PBUH, the best human to ever live - even though it's use can be for the biography of anybody, the muslim scholars have kept it only now for the prophet PBUH.

So why should we study the seerah? Benefits are numerous:

1. Allah has comanded us to know this man. Its an obligation and there are over 50 verses in the Quran that command us to take the prophet as an example. "Indeed there is for you, in the messenger of Allah, an exemplementary manner, a perfect conduct". So we have the perfect example and therefore the life of our prophet is the study of someone we must follow. And amazingly no matter how we look at the seerah we will benefit from it:

(i) religion: in terms of how we worship Allah

(ii) manners and morals: mercy and tenderness

(iii) leadership: how he lead the muslims to success

(iv) how he was as a father, husband, brother in law etc.

(v) how he was a friend, neighbour etc.

Allah tells us "If We had wanted We could have sent angels. But what would you have done if We sent angels? You would have rejected them". Indeed of the perfection of Allah's wisdom, is that He sent down human beings. People like us flesh and bones so we don't say "but we can't be like them". They are born of women, they marry and have women just like us. But the difference is they are chosen by Allah and are made role models.

2. The seerah is the number one way to increase our love for the prophet PBUH. There is no other way as powerfull. This is a sad fact of our ummah that we neglected this study. Most of us are ignorant. Its embarrasing we know so much about movie stars, actors, sports people but no clue to the real person we should know about. So by studying our seerah our loves increases. But its a two way street: in order to increase our love we must study him. But by studyding him we are expressing our love. Indeed when you love someone you want to know everything about him, and you want to imitate him in every way possible. Any one who claims to love the prophet PBUH but doesnt study the seerah, then you do not love him. To study it is a sign of love, but by studying we increase our love. Its a circle, the more we study the more we love but the more we love the more we study.

3. It also helps us to understand the Quran. Because its so complex you cannot understand without context. For example, surah ad duha "Your Lord has not abandoned you" - we cannot understand this verse. But if we knew the context that in this time the prophet PBUH was worried and concerned that for weeks wahi/revelation hasnt come down and the prophet PBUH start thinking "maybe Allah has abadoned me". This is the first year of revelation so shaytan/satan gave him bad thoughts - Allah is telling him "Be patient" etc. So until we understand this, the surah doesn't make much sense. So the Quran gains meaning by studying the seerah.

4. It raises our hope, lifts our spirits and blesses us with optimism. We are NOT being persecuted compared to the sahaba/companions of prophet pbuh but we are facing a little bit of heat. By studying the seerah we can understand the people before us suffered much more, and we compare our trials and tribulations to theirs, and realise that actually we have it easy. And in fact, the Quran tells us that Allah is telling the prophet PBUH the stories of the earlier prohpets, why? "We are going to recite to you the stories of the previous prophets in order that your hearts attain affirmation". That is, it increased the prophet PBUH optimism and eeman/faith. It affirms our eemaan.