About

Seerah of Muhammad ﷺ (peace and blessings be upon him) is a short, simple seerah written for students by Hadhrat Moulana (Qari) Siddeeq Ahmad Baandwi, servant of Jaami’ah ‘Arabiyyah, Hathora, India. It runs from the birth and lineage of Nabi ﷺ (peace and blessings be upon him) in Makkah, through prophethood, persecution, the Hijrah and the Madinan years, year by year from 1 to 11 AH, to his final illness and passing, and ends with his blessed features, clothing, character and miracles.

The English edition is published by the Jamiatul Ulama (KZN) Ta’limi Board, South Africa (3rd edition, Sha’baan 1428 / August 2007). The book can be downloaded as a PDF from Islamic Studies Resources.

Hadhrat Moulana Siddeeq Ahmad Baandwi Saheb رحمة الله عليه (may Allah have mercy on him)

For the esaale thawaab of the entire Ummah of Nabi ﷺ (peace and blessings be upon him)

“Open permission is granted for reprinting of this booklet provided it is not for gain and without any alterations.”

A humble appeal is directed to readers to offer suggestions, corrections, etc. to improve the quality of this publication in the future. May Allah ﷻ (exalted is His majesty) reward you for this.

The author, translators, editors, sponsors and typesetters humbly request your duas for them, their parents, families, Mashaaikh and Asaatidha.

• Each episode opens with an In brief card: a few plain sentences written by this site. Below it is the book’s own text. The switch above the text shows the Full text, In brief only, or Both; your choice is remembered on this device.
• A− / A+ changes the size of the text.
• Words with a dotted underline are in the glossary. Select one to see its meaning.
• The map shows the places of the Seerah, and the journey lists every chapter.
• Move between episodes with the buttons at the bottom of each episode, the ← and → keys, a sideways swipe on a phone, or the chapter bar along the bottom of the screen.
• Read on moves to the next episode by itself after a reading-time delay. It waits while you scroll, press a key or rest the pointer on the text. Calm mode stills most of the motion. The optional nature sounds are off until you turn them on.

No people and no animals are ever shown. Not the Prophet ﷺ (peace and blessings be upon him), not any other prophet or angel, not the Companions, and not anyone else: no figures, silhouettes, faces or shadows. Animals are left out of the pictures too, so the art stays fully aniconic, as classical Islamic art often was. The story is carried by landscape, sky, light, architecture, geometry and lettering.

The moving light means “where the story is now”. It is a reading guide and nothing more. It does not stand for the Prophet ﷺ (peace and blessings be upon him) or for any person.

Battles are told by the text, not shown. A battle chapter shows its real landscape under a sober sky: no weapons, armies or fighting.

Sacred text is kept to the reading cards. Qur’anic verses appear in full, in their own panel, with a link to the verse. They are never used as decoration.

There is no music, no recitation and no human voice. The only sound is an optional soundscape of nature (wind, water, birds, insects and distant animals), off until you turn it on. Animals can be heard but are never seen: a sound in the distance suggests a living place without picturing any living thing.

The early buildings are drawn as they were first built: Masjid an-Nabawi as a courtyard of mud-brick walls with palm-trunk pillars and a palm-frond roof, without the later dome and minarets.

• The book’s text is reproduced unaltered, under the publisher’s open permission to reprint it not for gain and without alterations. Only damage from extracting the text out of the PDF (split words, page headers, the honorific glyphs) has been repaired. The book’s spelling and transliterations are kept as printed.
• The In brief summaries, the Context notes, the glossary, the chapter names and descriptions are the site’s own learning aids. They are labelled as such, and they may contain mistakes.
• The dates follow the book. Dates in the Common Era are approximate where marked “c.”.
• Where the book itself reports different opinions, the episode shows an Accounts differ note that points to the book’s own words. The site does not settle the difference.
• The site is free, has no adverts, no analytics, no cookies and no tracking, and nothing on it is for sale.

Found a mistake? If the site’s text differs from the printed book, or a summary says something the book does not, please report it with the episode number and the book page. See the developer page for how.

• The book: Seerah of Muhammad ﷺ (peace and blessings be upon him) by Moulana Siddeeq Ahmad Baandwi, published in English by the Jamiatul Ulama (KZN) Ta’limi Board. Copyright remains with the author and the publisher.
• Qur’anic text: from Tanzil (Uthmani text), used verbatim under its terms. Verse links go to quran.com.
• Map data: Natural Earth (public domain).
• Fonts: Cormorant Garamond, Literata, Amiri and Amiri Quran (SIL Open Font License 1.1), and Geist.
• Adapted from: the open-source Salalihini Sandeshaya reader.