50 Fun Facts About Seerah

The Arabic word sirah, used for the Prophet's biography, comes from a verb with what meaning?

To travel is the root sense: sirah comes from the verb sara, so a person's sirah is their journey through life, from birth to death.

Which ruler, by Muslim accounts, tore up the Prophet's letter and told his Yemeni vassal to seize its sender?

Khosrow II of Persia, angry that a subject had written his name first, tore the letter up, and he was later deposed and executed on his own son's orders.

Of what metal was the seal ring the Prophet had made for his letters, engraved 'Muhammad, Messenger of God'?

Silver was the metal, and the ring passed from the Prophet to Abu Bakr, Umar and then Uthman, who dropped it into the well of Aris, where it was never found.

On the Mi'raj, which prophet kept sending Muhammad back to plead for fewer daily prayers until fifty became five?

Moses warned that Muhammad's people could not bear fifty prayers a day, and once five remained, Muhammad said he was too ashamed to ask his Lord again.

What, by the seerah, finally broke the confederates' siege of Medina after the trench had stalled their cavalry?

A violent wind, recalled in Quran 33:9, blew out the besiegers' fires in the bitter cold, and the confederate armies withdrew.

From where did Bilal give the call to prayer on the day Mecca surrendered?

From the Kaaba's roof, on the Prophet's order: Bilal, once tortured by his master in Mecca for his faith, called the conquered city to prayer.

What did the Prophet's daughter Zaynab send to ransom her husband after Badr, moving her father to waive the payment?

A necklace Khadijah had given Zaynab at her wedding was among the ransom, and on seeing it the Prophet asked the Muslims to free her husband and return it, and they agreed.

What does the opening verse of Surah 48 call the Hudaybiyyah truce?

A clear triumph is the verdict of 48:1, though Umar and other companions first disliked the truce's terms; it let Muslims and Meccans mix in safety, and Islam spread.

The 629 clash at Mu'tah against Byzantine forces took place in which present-day country?

Jordan holds the site, near modern Karak east of the Jordan River, where the army's commanders fell in turn and Khalid ibn al-Walid drew it off.

Which title did the Prophet give Khalid ibn al-Walid, the convert who drew the army out of Mu'tah?

Sword of God, Sayf Allah, is the title tradition says the Prophet gave him after Mu'tah, where he took command once three appointed leaders had fallen.

Which Byzantine emperor, by Muslim accounts, received the Prophet's letter, carried by Dihya al-Kalbi by way of Bosra?

Heraclius, by the hadith, then questioned the Meccan trader Abu Sufyan about the Prophet, though historians doubt any envoy ever reached him.

Which valley battle of 630 against the Hawazin and Thaqif is named outright in the Quran, in Surat at-Tawbah?

Hunayn is one of the few battles the Quran names, verse 9:25 recalling how the Muslims' great numbers at first availed them nothing.

With what words did the Prophet release the Meccans gathered before him in 630?

Go your way, you are freed, he told them, after quoting Joseph's 'No reproach on you this day' (Quran 12:92) to a city that had fought him for years.

Which surah holds the verse 'Today I have perfected for you your religion', said to have come down at Arafat?

Al-Ma'idah carries it as verse 3, and a Jew told Umar that had it been revealed to them they would have made that day a festival.

Whose usury did the Prophet cancel first in the Farewell Sermon, ahead of every other claim in Arabia?

Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, his uncle, held the first usury claim abolished, and the first blood-feud he cancelled was likewise a Hashimite one.

Roughly how many companions does tradition say gathered in Medina to make the Farewell Pilgrimage with the Prophet?

About 100,000 companions converged on Medina to go with him, and heard the sermon at Arafat on the ninth of Dhu al-Hijjah.

What title, drawn from Quran 33:6, do Muslims give each wife of the Prophet, none of whom could remarry after him?

Mothers of the Believers, Umm al-Mu'minin, is the title, and Quran 33:53 told believers to ask the Prophet's wives for anything from behind a screen.

Which daughter of the Prophet died of illness in Medina on the very day news of the victory at Badr arrived?

Ruqayyah was being nursed by her husband Uthman on the Prophet's order while the army fought at Badr, and he was granted a share of the spoils as if he had fought.

Whom did the Prophet marry soon after Khadijah's death, a widow who had emigrated to Abyssinia?

Sawdah bint Zam'ah wed him in Ramadan of the tenth year of his mission, and she later gave up her turn with him to Aisha.

Which wife of the Prophet married him by proxy while in Abyssinia, the Negus paying her dower?

Umm Habiba, Ramla bint Abi Sufyan, was wed to him in absentia, and the Negus hosted a lavish wedding feast before she left for Medina.

Which Abyssinian woman, a slave in the household of the Prophet's parents, later married his adopted son?

Umm Ayman, Barakah, was freed when the Prophet married Khadijah, and he himself arranged her first marriage, to a man of the Khazraj.

Which young commander did the Prophet set over the last army he raised, sent toward Byzantine Balqa to answer Mu'tah?

Usama ibn Zayd, son of the adopted son killed at Mu'tah, led the force Abu Bakr insisted on dispatching after the Prophet's death.

What name did the oath take that the companions swore at Hudaybiyyah when their envoy Uthman was rumoured killed?

Pledge of the Tree, praised in Quran 48:18, alarmed Quraysh into releasing Uthman and sending an envoy to negotiate a truce.

Which Quraysh envoy had 'Messenger of God' struck from the Hudaybiyyah treaty?

Suhayl ibn Amr said Quraysh rejected Muhammad's prophethood, so the Prophet agreed to sign simply as Muhammad son of Abdullah.

Which convert, sent back under the treaty, escaped to the coast and raided Meccan caravans bound for Syria?

Abu Basir was joined on the shore by other converts who fled Mecca, and by tradition Quraysh themselves soon asked to be rid of the return clause.

Banu Bakr's attack on which tribe, newly allied to the Muslims, broke the truce and led to the march on Mecca?

Khuza'a's people, attacked at al-Wateer and pursued even into the sanctuary, sent forty riders to Medina to seek the Prophet's help.

To whom did the Prophet return the Kaaba's key after the conquest?

Uthman ibn Talha got the key back after a revelation told the Prophet to return trusts to their owners.

Which Badr veteran's secret letter warning Quraysh of the march was seized, yet the Prophet forbade Umar to kill him?

Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a was spared because, the Prophet said, God may have looked upon the people of Badr and forgiven them whatever they did.

Which Ghatafan convert, his faith still secret, set the Banu Qurayza and Quraysh at odds during the siege of Medina?

Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud told the Qurayza to demand Quraysh hostages, then told Abu Sufyan the Qurayza had defected, and the alliance cracked.

Which mosque, raised beside Quba, did the Prophet have destroyed on his return from Tabuk?

Masjid al-Dirar, the 'mosque of dissent' of Quran 9:107, was burned after a revelation stopped the Prophet from leading prayer there.

Which Medina-born scholar, later in the pay of the caliph al-Mansur, compiled the earliest full life of the Prophet?

Ibn Ishaq, by one account, was forced out of Medina after Hisham ibn Urwa objected to his reporting hadith from Hisham's wife.

Which early name for the Prophet's life-story is also the genre of al-Waqidi's famous book?

Maghazi means 'military expeditions', as the early narratives centred on his campaigns.

Which English convert and London manuscripts keeper wrote 'Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources' in 1983?

Martin Lings taught English at Cairo University until anti-British unrest forced him out of Egypt in 1952, and he later joined the British Museum.

Which Meccan pact of about 590, sworn to defend the wronged who lacked clan protection, did the young Muhammad join?

Hilf al-Fudul began when a Yemeni merchant was cheated of his price, and even under Islam the Prophet said he would still answer its call.

In whose house near the Kaaba did the first Muslims secretly meet and learn?

Al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam owned the house, and it was there that Umar ibn al-Khattab came to announce he had become a Muslim.

Up which hill did the Prophet climb to call out the Quraysh clans for his first public warning?

Safa is where he asked if they would believe his warning of an enemy about to attack; his uncle Abu Lahab shouted 'May you perish!', and a surah answered him.

What alone survived when termites ate the Quraysh pact boycotting Banu Hashim?

In Your name, O God, Bismika Allahumma, was all the termites left, and once Quraysh saw the eaten pact, the boycott ended.

Which Christian slave from Nineveh brought the Prophet grapes in an orchard at Ta'if after the town drove him out?

Addas, from the town of Jonah, was startled to hear the Prophet say bismillah over the grapes and call his prophet a brother.

Which surah do chronologies such as Ibn Kathir's place second among the revelations, after the first verses of al-Alaq?

Al-Muddaththir (The Cloaked) holds the verses that, by Jabir's hadith, came when revelation resumed after its pause: 'O you who are wrapped up! Arise and warn.'

Which Medina mosque is named for what happened there in the middle of a prayer?

Masjid al-Qiblatayn, 'mosque of the two qiblas', marks where the Prophet was told mid-prayer to turn from Jerusalem toward Mecca.

Which Ansari asked at Badr whether the campsite was revealed or merely chosen, then had the army moved to a better well?

Al-Hubab ibn al-Mundhir's plan had the other wells blocked or destroyed, so that the Muslims could drink while the Meccans could not.

Which Khazraj chief, remembered as 'leader of the hypocrites', turned back with 300 men on the march to Uhud?

Abdullah ibn Ubayy took a third of the force home, leaving about 700, and the Quran censured the withdrawal.

Which tracker chasing the Prophet on the Hijrah, his horse sinking, begged a blessing and turned back?

Suraqa ibn Malik's horse sank under him, and he went home promising to throw every other pursuer off their trail.

Who guided the Prophet and Abu Bakr from the cave toward Medina by back routes, a hired tracker still a pagan?

Abdallah ibn Arqat, also written Ibn Urayqit, was trusted though not a Muslim, and led them on camels Abu Bakr had bought in advance.

Which Ansari of Banu Najjar lies buried beneath the walls of Constantinople?

Abu Ayyub, by tradition the Prophet's first host in Medina, asked to be carried as deep into enemy land as possible; Mehmed the Conqueror later raised his tomb there.

What were the poor companions called who lived inside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, with little income in hard years?

Ahl al-Suffa, 'people of the bench', slept on a sheltered platform in the mosque, and Abu Hurayrah, the famous hadith narrator, lived among them.

Which poet recited 'Banat Su'ad' before the Prophet and received his mantle, the original Burda?

Ka'b ibn Zuhayr had mocked the Prophet in verse and been condemned, so he came to Medina seeking safety, won it, and then recited the ode that earned the mantle.

Which idol's divining arrows did the Prophet's grandfather consult before ransoming his son with 100 camels?

Hubal, the idol inside the Kaaba, had his arrows cast to pick which son to sacrifice, and they fell on the Prophet's future father.

Which ruler of Yamamah, seized and tied to a pillar of the mosque, was released and then embraced Islam?

Thumama ibn Uthal, chief of the Banu Hanifa, was set free after days in the mosque and became a Muslim, then went on to Mecca as a pilgrim.

What is the pilgrimage of Dhu al-Qi'dah 7 AH called, made under the truce a year after the Muslims were turned back?

Umrah al-Qaza, the 'make-up' pilgrimage of 629, saw the Muslims jog their first circuits of the Kaaba to show the watching Quraysh their strength.