Islam is in its origin an Arab religion. Everyone not an Arab who is a Muslim is a convert. Islam is not simply a matter of conscience or private belief. It makes imperial demands. A convert’s world – view alters. His Holy places are in Arab lands; his sacred language is Arabic. His idea of history alters. He rejects his own. The convert has to turn away from everything that is his. The disturbance for societies is immense, and even after a thousand years can remain unresolved. In the Islam of converted countries there is an element of neurosis and nihilism. These countries can be easily set on the boil.

Sir V.S. Naipaul

(Beyond Belief—

Islamic Excursion Among the Converted People)

Sirat Rasul Allah

Sirat Rasul Allah (Life of the Apostle of God) is the Arabic term used for the biographies of Muhammad, from which most historical information about his life and the early period of Islam is derived. The name is often shortened to “Sira”.

The first biography of the prophet was written by Ibn Ishaq (circa 706-773) about one hundred years after the death of Muhammad. However no text of his original work exists today. What survives is the commentary on Ishaq's biography by Ibn Hisham and extracts from the voluminous histories of Al Tabari.

It would seem that Ibn Ishaq compiled a faithful rendition of the life of Muhammad and early Muslim practices, including many events some would consider distasteful. We discern this from the comments by Ibn Hisham himself when he states that he intentionally omitted portions that did not address Muhammad and about which the Qur'an says nothing, things which are disgraceful to discuss; matters which would distress certain people; and such reports as al-Bakka'i told me he could not accept as trustworthy.

A student of Ibn Ishaq was al-Bakka'i who edited Ishaq's work leaving out reports he thought were untrustworthy. Hence Hisham, after him, who further sanitised the work in an attempt to exalt Muhammad to the position of 'best example of a human being' deliberately omitted many facets of Muhammad's life and deeds. Today we would conclude that Hisham's sira (completed in about 830), in an attempt to bring an aura of the miraculous to Muhammad's life, was being politically correct for his intended audience.

The sira literature differs from the hadiths in that they are in a continuous story form. The hadiths however were individual narration of words and deeds of the prophet with a validation of the chain of transmitters (isnad) for each account.

An English translation of Hisham's work was written by Edward Rehatsek, born 1819 in Hungary and died 1891 in Bombay, India, and presented to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1898. This chapter uses an abridged version of Rehatsek’s translation, compiled by Michael Edwardes in 1964 to highlight aspects of Muhammad’s life endorsing the scriptural injunctions brought to light throughout this book.

The sira is an extensive study of the life of Muhammad from his birth through to his death, detailing accounts such as political treaties, endeavours, assignments of officials, marriages, etc. which were passed on mainly in an oral tradition by successive generations of Muslims until compiled in the written form by Ibn Ishaq. Born into poverty and not rising to power and fame until the age of 52, the details of Muhammad’s birth and early life would certainly not have been recorded at that time. Therefore many of the miracles and prophecies ascribed to his early life would in most likelihood be a result of evolving exaggeration of tales from the devoted.

Hence what we have today is not contemporary history written by independent historians of the time of Muhammad. What we have is most likely embellished and sanitised tales as handed down over two or three generations until documented. Documents that we know to be further edited down the ages to suit the agenda of the authors.

These histories were written by the victors; the Muslims. No writings, culture or traditions of the defeated would ever survive in an environment where they were subjected to genocide or enslavement. Therefore we could never know the true story from both sides of what took place during Muhammad's conquest of Arabia in the early 7th century.

Use the links below to read extracts from relevant sections of the Sirat Rasul Allah.