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In contemporary Egypt, the secularization of discourses and practices raises a fundamental challenge to sīra writing concerning its vocation to make the founding narrative and the religious ideals of Islam comprehensible and meaningful to contemporary Muslims. Arguing that the Muslim community's image of the Prophet does indeed both affect and reflect its religious and spiritual condition, the known Egyptian intellectual and former rector of al-Azhar, ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd (1910-1978) holds the appearance of de-theologized forms of sīra writing as a symptom of a profound crisis of Islamic intellectuality. Against this background, his prophetological considerations seek to show that this challenge can only be overcome by a sīra writing that engages the audience in a personal and spiritual relationship with the Prophet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Completed in 1043/1633, the Insān al-ʿuyūn fī sīrat al-nabī l-maʾmūn by the Egyptian shaykh ʿAlī l-Ḥalabī (d. 1044/1635) is better known as Sīra ḥalabiyya. It presents itself as a summary of two Mamluk-era sīra s, the ʿUyūn al-aṯar fī funūn al-maġāzī wa-l-šamāʾil wa-l-siyar by Ibn Sayyid al-Nās (d. 734/1334) and the Subul al-hudā wa-l-rašād fī sīrat ḫayr al-ʿibād , of al-Ṣāliḥī l-Šāmī (d. 942/1536). The Sīra of Ḥalabī was written at the request of the sheikh al-Bakrī and participated in the debates of 11th/17th-century Ottoman Islam. By getting rid of the chains of transmission of hadiths, and of a too strict quest for authenticity, by often avoiding quoting precisely its sources, al-Ḥalabī seeks narrative flexibility for presenting probable, possible, and multiple versions of the Prophet's life. His conciliatory method firmly guides the reader to the signs of the Prophet's presence in human history, where the origins are constantly made current by new narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the social and cultural practices of Sira production and consumption in the later Middle Period. It probes into the place held by Sira regarding the veneration of the Prophet, especially in relation to Hadith. Its first part shows that in the Middle Period Sira was intended as a vast literary repository characterized by fluidity of format, diverse social fruition, and plurality of practices in transmission and consumption. It was a literary field characterized by narrative malleability and creativity, for which there was popular demand and scholarly dedication. The life and work of the Šāfiʿī scholar and Hadith expert Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Dimašqī (d. 842/1438), in particular his Ǧāmiʿ al-āṯār fī l-siyar wa-mawlid al-muḫtār (The Compilation of Traditions on the Life and Birth of the Chosen One) occupies the second part of the article. Here, Ǧāmiʿ al-āṯār is taken as a written exemplification of the tight relationship between Sira, Hadith and devotion to the Prophet typical of the period, of 14th-15th century Damascus in particular. Overall, the article argues that the intended meaning and use of a text as rich as Ǧāmiʿ al-āṯār can be fully grasped only when we put it in close conversation with the Hadith culture and veneration for the Prophet of the time. It suggests the existence of a pervasive "Sira culture" binding people in a relationship of meaning to their shared memories of the life of the Prophet. Such culture was nurtured by remembrance of the Prophet's excellency and life milestones. It aimed at cultivating salvific feelings of love for the Prophet that would assure believers a secure place in the Afterlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some early commentators interpreted Kor 53, 5-11 as referring to the Prophet's seeing God. Some versions of the story of the Prophet's Ascension, thought to be alluded to at Kor 17,1, include his seeing God. Other hadith reports assert that he saw God with reference to Kor 38, 69, 17, 36, and 6, 75. Controversy seems to have begun in the second/eighth century. Disagreement revolved around three main points: whether the Prophet saw God at all; if so, the manner of his seeing, whether by his eye or otherwise; and, if so, the appearance of God as a young man or as light. Affirmation that the Prophet saw God is especially associated with Basra and, from the later third/ ninth century, the Hanbali school of law and theology, whereas denial is especially associated with Kufa. But there was disagreement even with regions and schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]