It is a great privilege to read through the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and try to explore how things used to be: what the society was like, what the connections were, and how people lived. In the previous sessions, we covered the trade routes, the products they used to sell, the markets, and the…
Moral, Human and Civilisational Values in Islam I always ask myself, imagine if the Prophet ﷺ was here with us today. What would we say to him? Would we feel proud to be from his ummah, or shy of our shortcomings? Though I love him without a shadow of a doubt, I still have plenty…
The religious and social privilege of Quraysh: the Hums and the Hillah Makkan society before Islam was not divided only by lineage, wealth and tribal protection. There was also a form of religious distinction connected to the Haram and the rituals of Hajj. One of the clearest examples was the Hums. The term Hums was…
Previously, we looked briefly at why we need to study the Seerah and the importance of studying it. We then followed that with an overview of the situation in Arabia and the regions surrounding it at that time. We need to know what was going on around the Arabian Peninsula. It was not just about…
It is a great honour to talk about the Prophet ﷺ and to learn from his seerah – his life and biography. Previously, we looked at why we study the seerah – what is the benefit and what is the connection between the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Qur’an and our own reality. Though…
Arabia Before Islam History is often shaped in places that few people expect. When people think of the great civilisations of the ancient world, they picture the temples of Egypt, the academies of Athens, the roads of Rome or the palaces of Persia. Rarely do they imagine the deserts of Arabia. To many of the powerful…
History remembers civilisations for what they leave behind. Ancient Egypt is remembered for its monuments. Greece for philosophy. Rome for law and engineering. China for its technological innovations. Islamic civilisation left a different kind of legacy. Over many centuries it became one of the world’s great centres of learning, scholarship, trade, architecture and scientific enquiry. From…