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Finally there are the books purporting to be annals of Makkah and Madeenah which give, besides the chronicles of these cities, the conditions obtaining during the life-time of the Prophet and similar other details. These constitute the seventh source for the Prophet's biography. The oldest historical works of this nature are the Akhbar Makkah by al-Azraqi (d. 223/837) and Akhbar Madeenah by `Umar ibn Shaybah (d. 262/875). Two more works of the same name are by Fakihi and Ibn Dhabala.

This brief sketch of the historical records and sources of the biographical works about the Prophet is sufficient to convince everybody, whether a friend or foe, about the authentic character of material. You would have noticed that the great traditionists of the past did not rely merely on the memories and oral reports but they also established study circles in the mosques and madrasas for the study of traditions and the Maghazi. `Asim ibn `Umar ibn Qatadah (d. 121/737) was the grandson of one of the Prophet's Companions, Qatadah Ansari. He wrote books on Maghazi and Siyar (biographies) and also delivered lectures to a group of students in the mosque of Damascus in pursuance of an order given by Caliph `Umar ibn 'Abdul-'Azeez. Actually, the number of the Prophet's biographies written right from his own times to this day in different countries and languages would be several thousand. In Urdu alone there would be several hundred such monographs although its (Urdu's) literary history does not go beyond two hundred years, at the most, and serious dissertations in the language actually came to be written only after the upheaval of 1857.

For it is a cardinal principle of the Muslims' faith to pay their regard to the illustrious Prophet, let us turn our attention to the endeavours made by the followers of other religions to study the life of Muhammad. A number of Hindus, Sikhs, Brahmo Samajis and others in India have written the biographies of the holy Prophet. Europe has also had a long tradition, despite its hatred towards Islam, of the studies undertaken in this field, even though these were more often taken up for serving the needs of evangelism or for historical and literary purposes. Al-Mugtabas (The Adaptation), a literary magazine of Damascus, published a list of European works on the life of the Prophet, some fifteen or sixteen years back, which listed thirteen hundred books. Prof. D.S. Margoliouth, who was a teacher of Arabic in the Oxford University, had written a biography of the Prophet, which was published in the series of the Heroes of Nations in 1906. No exposition more inimical has ever been brought out with a confessedly Jewish bias by any other biographer of the Prophet, at least in the English language, for the author has left no stone unturned to cull out something from the original sources to distort everything connected with the life and teachings of Muhammad, yet he had to acknowledge in his introduction to the book that - "The biographers of the Prophet Mohammad form a long series which it is impossible to end, but in which it would be honourable to find a place."

There is, also, a sympathetic Christian biographer John Davenport, who begins his biography of the Prophet entitled, An Apology for Muhammad and the Quran with the acknowledgement of the fact that of all the lawmakers and conquerors there is not one the events of whose life are more true and more detailed than those of the Prophet Muhammad.

R. Bosworth Smith, late fellow of Trinity College of Oxford, delivered a series of lectures on, 'Mohammad and Mohammedanism' under the auspices of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in February and March, 1874. He says in his lectures which were later on enlarged and published under the same title:

"And, what is true of the religion generally, is also true, unfortunately, of those three religions which I have called, for want of a better name, historical - and of their founders. We know all too little of the first and earliest labourers; too much, perhaps, of those who have entered into their labours. We know less of Zoroaster and Confucius than we do of Solon and Socrates; less of Moses and Buddha than we do of Ambrose and Augustine. We know indeed some fragments of a fragment of Christ's life; but who can lift the veil of the thirty years that prepared the way for the three? What we do know indeed has renovated a third of the world, and may yet renovate much more; an ideal of life at once remote and near; possible and impossible, but how much we do not know! What do we know of His mother, of His home life, of His early friends, of His relation to them, of the gradual dawning, or, it may be, the sudden revelation, of His divine mission? How many questions about Him occur to each of us which must always remain questions?

But in Mohammedanism everything is different; here instead of shadowy and the mysterious we have history. We know as much of Mohammad as we do even of Luther and Milton. The mythical, the legendary, the supernatural is almost wanting in the original Arab authorities, or at all events can easily be distinguished from what is historical. Nobody here is the dupe of himself or of others; there is the full light of day upon all that that life can ever reach at all."

The Muslims have written innumerable biographies of their Prophet, and are still writing more of them, it would be no exaggeration to claim that each one of these is more detailed, more reliable and based on more authentic historical records than that of any other Prophet or founder of religion written by his followers. This is a continuing process: each generation has studied afresh the original sources, traditions and ear-and-eye-witness reports, shed fresh light on the Prophet's life, and, passed on the fruits of its labour to the succeeding generation. Al-Muwatta', the first compilation of traditions was learnt by 400 persons from its author, Malik ibn Anas, and his disciples included rulers as well as scholars, legists as well as litterateurs. Sixty thousand persons had attended the discourses of alFarbari, lecturing on the Saheeh of his mentor, Bukhari. Were similar arrangements ever made for propagating the teachings and biographical data of any other founder of any religion? Was the biography of any other prophet transmitted, preserved and compiled with the same care? Who can claim this honour save Muhammad on whom be peace and blessings of the Lord!

Saiyid Sulayman Nadwi

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