The word · History
السِّيرَة
Sirah
The life story of the Prophet Muhammad, told in order, from birth to death.
Also written · Seerah · Sira · Seera · Siera · Sirah Nabawiyyah · Seerat · Sirat an-Nabi · Life of the Prophet · Prophetic biography · Seerah Nabawiyyah · Siyar · Sirah of Muhammad
The meaning
What Sirah means in Islam
The root means to travel, so a sirah is the road a person walked. The oldest surviving account is Ibn Ishaq's, preserved in the edition of Ibn Hisham, alongside al-Waqidi and the Tabaqat of Ibn Sa'd. Sirah writers accepted material on a looser standard of proof than the hadith scholars did, so a story being famous in the sirah does not by itself make it authentic.
Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named
Read beside it
Rooms that name it
Words that sit beside it
- SahabahThe Companions: anyone who met the Prophet as a believer and died still believing.الصَّحَابَة
- HijrahThe Prophet's migration from Makkah to Madinah in 622, the start of the Muslim calendar.الهِجْرَة
- HadithA report of what the Prophet Muhammad said, did, or quietly approved, passed down through named narrators.الحَدِيث
- IsnadThe chain of narrators who carried a hadith, listed name by name back to its source.الإِسْنَاد
More from History
- Abu BakrThe Prophet's closest friend, his companion in the cave, and the first caliph.أَبُو بَكْرٍ الصِّدِّيق
- Battle of Mu'tahThe first clash with Byzantine forces, in year eight, where three appointed commanders fell in turn.مُؤْتَة
- Hijrah to AbyssiniaThe first migration, when persecuted Muslims fled Makkah to a Christian king in Abyssinia.الهِجْرَةُ إِلَى الحَبَشَة
- Isra and Mi'rajThe night the Prophet was taken to Jerusalem and then raised through the heavens.الإِسْرَاءُ وَالمِعْرَاج
- MadinahThe oasis city that took the Prophet in, where he governed, died and is buried.المَدِينَة
- Salman al-FarisiA Persian who searched through two religions for the truth and was enslaved before finding it.سَلْمَانُ الفَارِسِيّ