The Seerah
The life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ — told from authentic sources
© 2026 Sheikh Mohamed Fawzy. All rights reserved. Version 1.7
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This introduction fits one class period (about 40 minutes). Turn on Notes in the top bar to see these teaching notes; turn them off before handing the link to students. Every hadith has a small Takhrīj button: it opens the full Arabic text with its chain, the book, chapter, number and grade.
What is the Seerah?
Sīrah comes from the verb sāra (سَارَ): to walk, to travel.
So a sīrah is the path a person walks through life — how he lived, and how he treated people.
When Muslims say “the Seerah”, they mean the life story of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ — from his birth to his passing. It has three sides. Tap each card.
His life
The events: where he was born, where he lived, the people around him, what happened year by year.
His character
How he spoke, smiled, forgave, and treated his family, his friends — and even his enemies.
His message
What Allah sent him with: to worship Allah alone, and to live a life of goodness and justice.
Write سِيرَة and سَارَ on the board. Ask: “If someone wrote your sīrah today, what would it say about you?” — it makes the idea of a life-path personal.
Why do we study the Seerah?
Allah Himself tells us to look at the life of His Messenger ﷺ:
The word uswah (أُسْوَة) means a role model — someone you copy. That gives us three reasons:
To know him
You cannot truly love someone you do not know. The Seerah lets us know him ﷺ.
To follow him
Allah made him our example in worship, manners, family life, and hard times.
To understand the Qur’an
Many verses came down about events in his life. Knowing the story helps us understand the verses.
Surat al-Aḥzāb 33:21 was revealed in the context of the Battle of the Trench (al-Aḥzāb) — a nice hook for chapter 22 later in the course.
“His character was the Qur’an”
Many years after the Prophet ﷺ passed away, a man named Sa‘d ibn Hishām visited ‘Ā’ishah — the Mother of the Believers, who knew the Prophet ﷺ at home better than anyone. He asked her a question:
What does it mean?
Whatever the Qur’an commands — honesty, mercy, patience, justice — he did it first and best. Whatever the Qur’an forbids, he was the furthest from it. He was the Qur’an, lived out.
Ask the students to name one value the Qur’an teaches, then one story they know where the Prophet ﷺ lived that value. The Takhrīj panel explains that this is a small part of a long hadith.
His whole life in one sentence
Press the button to build his life, step by step.
40 + 13 + 10 = 63 years
Have the class add the numbers aloud. Point out that these are lunar (Hijri) years. The same age, 63, is narrated from ‘Ā’ishah in al-Bukhari 3536 (mentioned inside the Takhrīj).
Two cities, two stages
Makkah الْعَهْدُ الْمَكِّيُّ
13 years
- Building belief: worship Allah alone, the Last Day, the stories of the prophets.
- Few Muslims, much persecution — and great patience.
Madinah الْعَهْدُ الْمَدَنِيُّ
10 years
- Building a community: the masjid, brotherhood, the laws of worship and daily life.
- Defending the believers, until Islam spread across Arabia.
The Hijrah — the migration from Makkah to Madinah — is the line between the two stages. It was so important that the Companions began the Islamic calendar from it:
The drawing has no people in it on purpose: in this course we never draw the Prophet ﷺ, the prophets, the Companions or the angels. Ask: “What year is it now in the Hijri calendar?” and count back to the Hijrah together.
A chain of trustworthy people
Nobody alive today saw the Prophet ﷺ. So how do we know what happened? Through a chain of trustworthy people — each one heard it from the one before him. This chain is called the isnād (إِسْنَاد).
Follow the hadith you just read (40 + 13 + 10) on its journey to you:
- Ibn ‘Abbāsعَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ عَبَّاسٍCompanion — he knew the Prophet ﷺ
- ‘Ikrimahعِكْرِمَةُhis student
- Hishām ibn Ḥassānهِشَامُ بْنُ حَسَّانَ
- Rawḥ ibn ‘Ubādahرَوْحُ بْنُ عُبَادَةَ
- Maṭar ibn al-Faḍlمَطَرُ بْنُ الْفَضْلِ
- Imam al-Bukhariالْإِمَامُ الْبُخَارِيُّwrote it in his Sahih · d. 256 AH
- Scholars, teachers, studentscopied, checked and taught the book — generation after generation
- You!reading it today
Try this game
Whisper a sentence along a line of 8 people. Does it arrive the same?
That is why the scholars checked every single person in a chain: was he honest? did he remember well? did he really meet the one before him?
Play the whisper game for two minutes before showing the chain. Then press Next link one step at a time. Point out that the chain on this slide is the same one printed in the Takhrīj of al-Bukhari 3902.
“The isnād is part of the religion”
‘Abdullāh ibn al-Mubārak was a great scholar of hadith who died in the year 181 after the Hijrah. He said:
Without a chain
Anyone could say “The Prophet ﷺ said…” and add anything they liked. Nobody could check it.
With a chain
Every report can be tested, person by person. That is how Allah protected the Sunnah and the Seerah.
Make clear that this is the saying of a scholar (an athar), not a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ — the grade label on the card says so. Imam Muslim placed it in the Introduction to his Sahih.
Careful with every word
al-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwām was one of the closest Companions of the Prophet ﷺ. His son ‘Abdullāh noticed that his father rarely told hadith — so he asked him why.
Why so careful?
al-Zubayr was afraid of saying something about the Prophet ﷺ that was not exactly right. Being close to him made him more careful, not less.
What about us?
Before you share a story, a quote or a video about the Prophet ﷺ — check it first. In this course, every hadith has a Takhrīj button. Try it on the hadith above!
Connect this to social media: forwarded messages that begin “The Prophet ﷺ said…” are often not authentic. Ask students to tap the Takhrīj button and read out the book and number.
The books on our shelf
This course is built on these books. We follow the order of Ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, and we check the reports in the books of hadith.
Tap a book to learn about it.
The Noble Qur’an
The first and most truthful source. Many events of the Seerah are told in the Qur’an itself — the Hijrah, Badr, Uḥud, the Trench, Ḥudaybiyah and more.
Sahih al-Bukhari صَحِيحُ الْبُخَارِيِّ
By Imam al-Bukhari (d. 256 AH). The scholars agree it is the most authentic book after the Qur’an. It has whole sections on the life and battles of the Prophet ﷺ.
Sahih Muslim صَحِيحُ مُسْلِمٍ
By Imam Muslim (d. 261 AH), a student of al-Bukhari. Second in authenticity. Together, the two are called al-Ṣaḥīḥān — “the two Sahihs”.
Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah — Ibn Hishām سِيرَةُ ابْنِ هِشَامٍ
The oldest complete Seerah we have, edited by Ibn Hishām from the work of Ibn Isḥāq. A treasure — but many of its reports come without a full chain, so we check them before we teach them.
Ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm الرَّحِيقُ الْمَخْتُومُ
By Shaykh Ṣafiyy al-Raḥmān al-Mubārakpūrī. It won first prize in a worldwide Seerah competition held by the Muslim World League. Our main guide for the order of events in this course.
Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah al-Ṣaḥīḥah السِّيرَةُ النَّبَوِيَّةُ الصَّحِيحَةُ
By Dr. Akram Ḍiyā’ al-‘Umarī. He studied the reports of the Seerah using the rules of the hadith scholars, separating the authentic from the weak.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah صَحِيحُ السِّيرَةِ النَّبَوِيَّةِ
By Shaykh Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī (d. 1420 AH). A collection of the authentic reports of the Seerah.
Bring a printed copy of Ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm (it is available in English as “The Sealed Nectar”) if you have one.
Is it authentic?
After checking the chain and the text, the scholars gave each report a grade. You will see these labels in every chapter. Tap a card to flip it.
Ṣaḥīḥ
Authentic
Every link is connected; every narrator is honest and has a strong memory; it does not go against more reliable narrators; and it has no hidden flaw.
✓ We teach it with confidence.
Ḥasan
Good
Like ṣaḥīḥ, but one narrator’s memory was a little lighter.
✓ It is accepted and we teach it.
Ḍa‘īf
Weak
A link is missing, or a narrator is not reliable.
✗ We leave it out of this course, however famous it is.
Keep the definitions simple at this level. Older students can be told that a ḥasan report is still a proof in Islamic law, while a ḍa‘īf one is not relied on.
The road ahead
The Seerah is divided into four parts. The Makkan and Madinan periods are divided again into stages, so you always know where you are in his life ﷺ.
Before the Prophethood
The land, the family and the forty years that prepared him. 5 chapters.
The Makkan Period
Revelation begins: belief, patience and the first believers. 10 chapters.
The Hijrah
The journey that became the start of the Islamic calendar. 2 chapters.
The Madinan Period
Building a community, defending it, and completing the message. 12 chapters.
The Hijrah has a part of its own because it is the turning point between the two periods and the start of the calendar.
Quick quiz
Students can do the quiz alone at home; in class, read each question aloud and let the class vote before tapping.
A mercy to all the worlds
Whenever you hear his name in this course, send blessings upon him: ṣallā Allāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam ﷺ.
End by asking each student to say the ṣalāh upon the Prophet ﷺ once — and remind them of the reward in the hadith.