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In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad
IN THE
FOOTSTEPS OF THE
P R O P H E T IN THE
FOOTSTEPS
OF THE
PROPHET
Lessons from the
Life of Muhammad
Tariq Ramadan
OXFORD
UNIVtiRSITY PRESS
2007 OXFORD
VNIVEIt.SITY PRESS
Oxfmd Univenil}" Press, inc., publ;shc~ 1'/OtXs th~t
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fuunulan, Tanq.
In ,he fo<){sfCPS of the prophet: leSI
Tan,,! R2madan.
p. cm. Include, bibliographIcal referencel Qnd inde:.;.
ISRN-13: 978.o).19-53OllSo..8
1. Muhammad, Prophet, d. 632----ApprecIlH;on.
2. Muhammad, Prophet, d. 632----Ethics.
3. Muhammad, Prophet, d. 632-THdungs.
4. MUilims-ConduCI of life.
5. IslmUc "thies.
I. Tttle.
BPi6.2R36 2007
297.6'3--dc22
IH] 2()()(,(1260JO
35798642
Pnnted In the LrutM 5"'1 .... of Amenca
on acid_free po.ptr Contents
Acknowlcdb>mcnts vn
.
Introduction ox
1 Encounter with the Sacred
2 Birth and Education 9
3 Personality and Spiritual Quest 19
4 Revelation, Knowledge 29
5 The rvlcssage and Adversity 37
6 Resistance, Humility, and Exile 51
7 Trials, Elevation, and Hopes 63
8 Hijrah 81
9 J\kdina, Ufe, and \'
10 Teachings and Defeat 111
1 I Tricks and Treason 129
12 A Dream, Peace 149
13 Coming Home 165
14 At Home, Over There 181
15 Debtless 199
In History, for Eternity 211
Notes 217
Index 235 To Najma
This book is a work of dawn
And you accompanied it, with your footsteps on the stairs,
Your mischievous, laughing, or sulky eyes.
You came to CUI! up in my arms.
1 would then leave the screen through which I immersed
w:l8
In the infinite light of the Messenger's goodness and love,
To drown in the infinite warmth of your presence.
The Messenger taught me forgiveness, you offered me innocence.
i\Iay your path be brjght, my daughter, and may He love you
Through your smiles and through your tears.
I love you.
To ATlma Ali
An American encoumer and a never-ending gift
Facing trials. accepting silences.
You have accompanied my thought and my questions,
And read and reread and rephrased, often better than I could have done.
Faithfulness of the heart and soul in the Light of the 110st High
In the footsteps of His Messenger.
I forget nothing.
To Claude D"bbak
To tell you here of my eSteem and respect
For that deep modesty and constant humility.
Behind the translator, one senses deeply rich learning
And an immense gift offered to \Vestern Muslims.
Your name too often hides behind authors' works.
debt is immense, mine in particular.
OUf
In the name of us all, truly, from the bottom of my heart,
Thank you! Acknowledgments
In the hours of dawn when trus book was written, there was silence, med(cid:173)
itative solitude, and the experience of a journey, beyond time and space,
toward the heart, the essence of spirihlal quest, and initiation into mean(cid:173)
ing. lvlomenrs of plenitude, and often of tcars; of contemplation and vul(cid:173)
nerability. I needed this.
As time went on, the list of the women and men who made it possible
to complete this project grew longer. I am almost sure that some of these
precious names are going to escape me, though this in no way lessens the
importance of their presence and contribution. Others have been moved
by discretion or other reasons to remain anonymous; I understand, and
my heart thanks them beyond these pages with the affection and gratitude
they know go out to them.
I would first of all like to thank Faris Kermani and Neil Cameron, who
0/
two years ago asked me to narrate a film, Tn the Footrteps the Prophet Mu(cid:173)
hammad, for a British television channel. Political considerations (n\'o Arab
governments having banned me from entering their territory) unfortunate(cid:173)
ly made that project impossible. I then decided to do something entirely dif(cid:173)
ferent and write a biography of the Prophet Muhammad, endeavoring to
throw light on the spiritual and contemporary teachings in the life of the
laSt Prophet. Many people around me encouraged me to carry this
Out
work. 1 am indebted to Iman, 1hryam, Sami, !. ..I oussa, and Najma for their
constant accompaniment and support, and to my mother for some original
ideas that came up hete and there in our discussions. 1 would like to thank
Cynthia Read, of Oxford University Press (Nev.' York), very warmly for her
permanent enthusiasm, faithfulness, and humanity. In her Oxford-based
collaborators, I have also found thoughtful and kind women and men. VIii
During this academic year, my work has been accompanied by the pres(cid:173)
ence of Gwen Griffith-Dickson and Vicky Mohammed of the Lokahi
Foundation, based in London. At Saint Antony's College, Oxford Uni(cid:173)
versity, Walter Armbrust and Eugene Rogan (Middle East Center) as well
as Timothy Garton Ash and Kalypso Nicolaidis (European Studies
Center) also enabled me to complete this work in the best possible con(cid:173)
ditions through their academic support and friendship. I do not forget
Polly Friedhoff (who has now gone into wcll-desecved retirement), Franca
POttS, and Collette Caffrey, who have been constantly available. To all of
them, and to all those \\'Omen and men who have surrounded me \\~th
their recognition and unobtrusive suppon , I would here Jjke to express
my deepest gratitude.
There is of course Yasmina Dif, my assistant, who manages my Euro(cid:173)
pean office in such a warm and efficient manner. Shellna Mcrani, in
Canada, has also undertaken difficult work with heart and solidarity. ~-funa
Ali, more than an assistant based in the United States, keeps reading, com(cid:173)
menting, and sharing ideas faithfully and seriously. Claude Dabbak has
translated this book and has, with great humility, never failed to put her
learning at the servjce of the necessary corrections. This book could not
have been completed without the collaboration of this team, at once fra(cid:173)
ternal, demanding, and devoted. With aU my heart, I thank them for being
with me on trus journey and making it possible for us to advance togeth(cid:173)
er, in I-lis light, against wind and tide.
My final thanks and my last prayer go to the One, the Most Near, that
He may accept and receive this Jjfe of the Prophet, that He may forgive
me its possible errors or failings-which arc due to none but myself-and
that He may allow it to be a small landmark in the human enterprise of
understanding and reconciliation: with oneself, with others, with His love.
I learn daily that the quest for humility cannot justify any lapse from spir(cid:173)
itual requirements or intel1eerual probity.
For myself, this book has been an initiatiol1. I pray to the 1\'lost
Gracious mat it may be so for others. Long is the road of exile leading to
oneself. ...
London
~hy 2006 Introduction
1
Countless biographies of the Prophet Muhammad already exist. From
classical sources (such as the works of Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham) to
morc recent accounts of the life of God's Messenger, as well as other
renowned works by Muslim scholars over the course of history, it seems
that everything must have already been said over and over again and that
the subject matter must necessarily have been exhausted. So why should
we undertake yet another attempt?
The present biography does not aim to compete with classical sources
(which indeed arc its source material), disclose any new facts, or provide
an original or revolutionary reinterpretation of the history of prophet(cid:173)
hood and its context. The aims of the present study are far more modest,
though it does not make them any easier to achieve.
The Prophet l\Iuhammad occupies a particular place in the life and
conscience of i\fuslims today, juSt as he did in the past. According to
them, he received and transmitted the last revealed book, the Quran,
which repeatedly insists on the eminent and singular position of the Mes(cid:173)
senger of God, all at once a prophet, a bearer of news, a model, and a
guide. He was but a man, yet he acted to transform the world in the light
of Revelation and inspirations he received from God, his Educator (ar(cid:173)
Rabb). That this man was chosen and inspired by God but also fully
accepted his own humanity is what makes Muhammad an example and a
guide for the 1{uslim faithful.
Muslims do not consider the Messenger of Islam a mediator between
God and people. Each individual is invited to address God directly, and
although the 1tessenger did sometimes pray to God on behalf of his introduction
community, he often insisted on each believer's responsibility in his or her
dialogue and relationship with the One. Muhammad simply reminds the
faithful of God's presence: he initiates them into His knowledge and dis(cid:173)
closes the initiatory path of spirituality through which he teaches his
Companions and community that they must transcend the respect and
love they have for him in the worship and love they must offer to and ask
of the One, who begets not and is not begotten.
To those who, in his lifetime, wanted miracles and concrete evidence
of his prophethood, Revelation ordered him to reply: "I am but a man
like yourselves; the inspiration has come to me that your God is One
God."2 This same Revelation also infotms the believers, for aU eternjty, of
the singular status of this Mes~enger who, while chosen by God, never
lost his human qualities: ''You have indeed in the Messenger of God an
excellent example for he who hopes in God and the Final Day, and who
remembers God much.,,3 These two dimensions-the man's humanity
and the Prophet's exemplarity-setve as the focus of our interest in the
present biography.
This is not going to be a detailed account of historical facts, great
achievements, or famous wars. Classical biographies of the Messenger
give abundant information about such matters, and we see no profit in
dealing with them exhaustively. Our attention is mainly focused, through(cid:173)
out the natration of the story of his life, on situations, attitudes, or \vords
that could reveal Muhammad's personality and what it can teach and coo(cid:173)
vey to us today. \'{'hen Aishah, his wife, was once questioned about the
Prophet's personality, she answered: "His character [the ethics underlying
his behavior] was the Quran.,,4 Since the Book addresses the believing
consciousness through the ages, it seemed essential to observe how the
man who best incarnated it in his behavior could "speak" to us, guide, us
and educate us nowadays.
The initial idea was therefore to plunge into the heart of the Prophet'S
life and draw out its timeless spiritual teachings. From his birth to his
death, his life is strewn with events, situations, and statements dlat point
to the deepest spiritual edification. Adherence to faith, dialogue with God,
observing nature, self-doubt, inner peace, signs and trials, and so on are
themes that speak to us and remind us that basically nothing has changed.
The Messenger's biography points to primary and eternal existential ques(cid:173)
tions, and in this sense, his life is an initiation. A second type of lesson can nevertheless be drawn from the historical
events that filled the Prophet's life. I n the seventh cenrory, at the heart of
a specific social, political, and cui rural environment, God's j\:lessenger
acted, reacted, and expressed himself about human beings and events in
the !1ame of his faith, in the light of his morals. Studying his actions in
this particular historical and geographical setting should enable us to
throw light on a number of principles about the relation of faith to
human beings, brotherhood, love, adversity, community life, justice, laws,
and \\'2r. We have therefore endeavored to approach j\ Iuhammad's life
from the perspective of our own times, considering how it still speaks to
us and what its contemporary teachings are.
The reader, whcther :Muslim or not, is thus invited to look into the
Prophet's life and follow the steps of an account that is strictly faithful to
classical biographies (as far as facts and chronology are concerned) but
which nevertheless constantly introduces reflections and comments, of a
spiritual, philosophical, social, judicial, political, or cultural narure, in(cid:173)
spired by the facts narrated. The choice to focus on certain events rather
than others is of course determined by the wish to draw out teachings
that speak to our lives and to our times. In each section of the (deliber(cid:173)
ately short) chapters that make up this book, the reader will notice con(cid:173)
stant movements between the Prophet's life, the Quran, and the teachings
relevant to spirituality and tl1e present-day situation that can be drawn
from the various historical situations.
aim is more to get to know the Prophet himself than to learn
OUf
about his personality or the events in his life. What is sought are immer(cid:173)
sion, s}'mpathy, and, essentially, love. Whether one believes or not, it is not
impossible to uy to immerse oneself in the Prophet's quest and existence
and recapture the pulse~the spirit-that infused his mission with mean(cid:173)
ing. This is indeed the primary ambition of this work: making of the
Messenger's life a mirror through which readers facing the challenges of
Our time can explore their hearts and minds and achieve an understand(cid:173)
ing of questions of being and meaning as well as broader ethical and
social concerns.
This book is intended for a lar&re audience, both Muslim and noo(cid:173)
Muslim. The text is academically rigorous in regard to classical Islamic
Sources, which we hope makes it useful to scholars and the Islamic sciences.
By contrast, the narrative, interwoven with reflections and meditations, is
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