The biography of the Prophet Muhammad?

Al-Samra the tree on which the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was shaded

Following the example of the Prophet Muhammad - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him - is not an impossible matter, and it is the principle that we must always bear in mind and strive for. To revive his Sunnah, one must first understand it well, and this understanding can only be made by presenting a single interpretation that is valid for every time and place.

Humans go through various experiences in different times, different societies and in different ways, and knowledge of the Prophet’s Sunnah in the midst of all these ways and experiences requires effort and wisdom, and wisdom is the best explanation of human behavior, and it is what the Messenger - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him - taught to his nation through the Book of God.

We must know that the Prophet is the only person among all people who can be followed from all sides, and imitate every movement, behavior and gesture he made. It is stated in the Qur’an that the Prophet did not bring a miracle other than the Qur’an, but his blessed personality and unique human condition made him a miracle in itself.

Just as God did not send the book alone, but also sent the prophet with him to apply it in a practical way, the prophet not only transmitted the book of God, but also taught wisdom to those who can explain it.

And if there is no wisdom, then the words of God will be interpreted without knowing its context and background, and this may lead to wrong interpretations and turn the text into a terrible weapon in the hands of the ignorant.

The first prominent example of this was what the Kharijites did against Ali bin Abi Talib, and the following years of Islamic history were full of problems created by wrong interpretations of the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, and there were, of course, accurate and wise interpretations that conveyed to us that fragrant biography.

Today, the accurate interpretation of the relationship between text and reality, and the relationship between text and interpretation, is the most important topic in the interpretation of the Book and the Sunnah. Interpretation emerged as an attempt to translate the eternal divine message to mortal humans, and interpretation today is mainly related to the way in which the mortal man tries to interpret those texts to other humans in the correct way.

However, what the Prophet did and said even if he was “one of us” has dimensions that go beyond the ordinary interpretation of the divine message transmitted to our language and our world. Therefore, the efforts we made as human beings in interpreting the text are in the end a human effort, and remain within the limits of human knowledge and understanding, This is the limit of our understanding, and exceeding this limit will only increase the possibility of error and inaccurate interpretation of the text.

Understanding the Prophet and understanding the message he carried is not a task that can be done once and for all, it must be a lifelong effort on all occasions, on all levels, during all events, and in the midst of all trials. We must know that the Prophet is the only one among all people who can be followed in all respects, and imitate every movement, behavior and gesture he made.

It was stated in the Qur’an that the Prophet did not bring a miracle other than the Qur’an, but his blessed personality and his unique human condition made him a miracle in itself. He is an exemplary human being and an example to follow, and he is the only person we know for certain that everything he has done pleases the Creator.

For example, the Prophet Jesus cannot be imitated in everything, he is an exceptional man who is impossible to imitate because of the miracles he brought, and the same is true of the other prophets, Adam, Moses, Noah and Job, and of course, there is a lot that these prophets gave to humanity and things that we must learn We benefit from them, but we cannot imitate them in all aspects of life. In this sense, the Prophet Muhammad - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him - is an exception among all the prophets who came with miracles, because he did not need a miracle other than the Qur’an. He was an exception because he is human like us and we can all imitate his actions. Compassion, love, compassion and patience.

It is clear that in order to revive his Sunnah it is necessary to know and understand his biography very well, and in fact there is hardly any other figure in history whose details of his life were transmitted to us as the biography of the Prophet, some of these details Muslims dealt with without the slightest change, and some of them dealt with him Flexibly from an early age, studying the biography of the Prophet is a remarkable effort in itself, and is an important indication of this nation's loyalty to its Prophet.

However, if we study the biography and re-understand it, we realize that it is not an effort that we make once and for all, every time needs a renewal of understanding according to the current needs and possibilities, and in this direction we can say that there are serious studies of the prophetic biography today we mentioned before the chronological study The Biography of the Prophet from the "Kuramer" Foundation, a study of outstanding size and quality.

The study includes the biography of the Messenger, his struggle, the revelation of the Holy Qur’an, and all the events to which the verses and hadiths refer, with their chronological arrangement, and in light of the great lack of such studies, it is necessary to congratulate Muhammad Abaiden for presenting a work with such accuracy and these details, and I can say that he has laid a new foundation stone For academic work in the field of Sharia in our country.

Among the wonderful works recently published is the book “The First Spring” by Waddah Khanfar, one of the brightest figures in contemporary Arab Islamic thought. The writer, who dealt with the biography from a “strategic” perspective, is expected to discuss his ideas on a recent occasion.

These forms of understanding Sharia and religion and understanding the life of the Prophet Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him peace - are what our nation needs and what future generations need, so that they will be able to understand their religion as required by the requirements of their time, so we help them understand their reality and improve it in light of their correct religious and ideological premises.(Yassin Aktay - Turkish academic, politician and writer)