Seerah meaning, the life of the Prophet ﷺ

The seerah, in full al-sirah al-nabawiyyah, is the biography of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Muslims study it to know the man they love and follow, and to see the Quran lived. When Aishah was asked about his character, she said:

كَانَ خُلُقُهُ الْقُرْآنَ

"His character was the Quran."

Sahih Muslim 746, from Sad ibn Hisham, who asked Aishah

The word

Sirah comes from sara, to travel or walk. A sirah is the way someone walks through life. The word appears once in the Quran, when Allah told Musa to pick up his staff after it became a snake:

قَالَ خُذْهَا وَلَا تَخَفْ ۖ سَنُعِيدُهَا سِيرَتَهَا ٱلْأُولَىٰ ﴿٢١﴾

Qaala khuzhaa wa laa ta khaf sanu'eeduhaa seeratahal oolaa

[Allah] said, "Seize it and fear not; We will return it to its former condition.

Quran 20:21 · Sahih International · Read in Surah Taha

"Its former condition" is siratahal-ula, its first state. The plural siyar was also used for books on the law of war and peace, because they record the Prophet's ﷺ conduct with other nations. Don't confuse sirah with sirat (صِرَاط), the path or bridge, as in al-sirat al-mustaqim: different letters, different word.

The life of the Prophet ﷺ in brief

• Birth and youth in Makkah: born in the Year of the Elephant, about 570 CE; orphaned young; known as al-Amin, the trustworthy; married Khadijah.
• The first revelation in the cave of Hira at about forty, around 610 CE.
• Thirteen years in Makkah: calling to tawheed, persecution, the boycott, the Year of Sorrow, the Isra and Miraj.
• The hijrah to Madinah in 622 CE, the start of the Islamic calendar.
• Ten years in Madinah: building the masjid and the community, Badr, Uhud, the Trench, the treaty of Hudaybiyah, and the conquest of Makkah in 8 AH.
• The farewell Hajj in 10 AH, and his death in Madinah in Rabi al-Awwal 11 AH (632 CE), at the age of sixty-three.

Allah describes him: "And indeed, you are of a great moral character" (68:4), and "We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds" (21:107).

The classic books of seerah

• Ibn Ishaq (died about 150 AH), the earliest full seerah, known today mostly through Ibn Hisham's edition, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah.
• Al-Waqidi's al-Maghazi on the campaigns, and Ibn Sa'd's al-Tabaqat.
• Al-Tirmidhi's al-Shamail, on his appearance and habits, and Qadi Iyad's al-Shifa.
• Ibn Kathir's al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, and Ibn al-Qayyim's Zad al-Maad on the lessons and rulings.
• In English: The Sealed Nectar (al-Raheeq al-Makhtum) by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri, and Martin Lings' Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources.

Seerah books are not all equal in their sources. The early historians gathered every report, strong and weak, so the hadith collections are used to check them. Where a popular story rests on a weak chain, good seerah teachers say so.

How the word is used today

"Seerah class" or "seerah series" means a course on the Prophet's ﷺ life. In Urdu and Bangla it is seerat, as in seerat-un-nabi, and seerah gatherings are common in Rabi al-Awwal. Seerah is also a girls' name.

How to start

Read one short, reliable seerah from start to end before the long ones. Read our page on his life, then a full book, and pair it with Surah Al-Anfal, Al-Ahzab and Al-Fath, which were revealed about the events.

Related terms

• صَحَابَةSahaba
• سُنَّةSunnah
• هِجْرَةHijrah
• أُمَّةUmmah

1. Sahih Muslim 746.
2. Quran 20:21, 68:4 and 21:107, translation by Sahih International.
3. Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah; Ibn Kathir, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah; al-Tirmidhi, al-Shamail al-Muhammadiyyah.
4. Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, from Aishah and Anas (his age at death, sixty-three).