What this part covers
This part follows the life of the Prophet ﷺ from his lineage to the eve of the first revelation, at Hira. The revelation itself, Waraqa ibn Nawfal and what came after are in part 3. The announcements in the Bible, and witnesses such as the monk Bahira, are in part 1: only what touches his life is kept here.
What this period establishes best is what concerns his person. He ﷺ was born in Mecca, on a Monday, in the year God held back Abraha’s elephant from the city. He was nursed by Thuwayba, then among the Banu Sa’d, where his chest was opened. An orphan, he grew up under the protection of his grandfather, then of his uncle Abu Talib. He tended the sheep of the Meccans, and his people called him al-Amin, the trustworthy. Then came the true dreams and the retreat at Hira. These facts rest on the Qur’an, on the collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim, or on the agreement of the sources.
Four classical biographies
The facts in this part come from four books, cited by volume and page of their printed editions:
- Ibn Hisham (died 213 AH, 828), al-Sira al-nabawiyya, which hands down the biography by Ibn Ishaq, the oldest of the sources;
- Ibn Sayyid al-Nas (died 734 AH, 1334), Uyun al-athar;
- Ibn Kathir (died 774 AH, 1373), al-Sira al-nabawiyya, drawn from his great history, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya;
- al-Salihi al-Shami (died 942 AH, 1536), Subul al-huda wa-l-rashad.
Older authors (Ibn Sa’d, al-Waqidi, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, al-Bayhaqi, al-Suhayli…) are cited only through these four books, at the page where they report them. The verdicts on chains of transmission are the ones these books give: Ibn Kathir often judges for himself; al-Salihi mostly reports the verdicts of Ibn Hajar and al-Dhahabi. Hadiths follow the sunnah.com numbering, and each page gives the link.
How the site weighs them
Not every account of this period carries the same weight, and the early biographers knew it. The site weighs each statement, not the story as a whole.
- What rests on the Qur’an, on al-Bukhari or Muslim, on a chain the critics judge good, or on an agreement the sources expressly state, is affirmed.
- Where the versions diverge, or where Ibn Ishaq reports without a chain, the account is given with its versions and their authors.
- What rests on an isolated report, on a chain the critics reject, or on marvels that appeared late, is presented as a tradition, with the reason for the reservation, or is left aside.
Two rules complete this sorting. When several books draw on the same source, most often Ibn Ishaq, they count as a single testimony. And when Ibn Ishaq himself writes “so they claim”, the site keeps his reservation: to repeat such stories without it would be less careful than the source.
This is why the wonders told of the night of the birth, such as the palace of Chosroes shaking or the fire of the Magi going out, are not given as facts: they come from a single chain, which none of the four books calls authentic. The light his mother saw, on the other hand, rests on a saying of the Prophet ﷺ, and is affirmed.
The dates
The sources date this period by “the Year of the Elephant” and by the age of the Prophet ﷺ, in lunar years. The years of the Common Era given on these pages do not come from the sources: they are calculated on the Muslim calendar, from the age of fifty-three that Ibn Ishaq gives him on his arrival in Medina (Ibn Hisham, I, 159), in September 622. They hold to within a year, and assume that he was born in the Year of the Elephant: hence “around 571”.
The pages of this part
- Lineage and family: from Adnan, a descendant of Ishmael, to Abd Allah and Amina; Zamzam and the vow of Abd al-Muttalib.
- The Year of the Elephant and the birth: the sura of the Elephant, the year and the day of the birth, the name, and what to make of the stories of the night of the birth.
- Childhood: nursing, the opened chest, the orphan: Thuwayba and Halima, the opening of the chest, the death of his mother and of his grandfather, the protection of Abu Talib.
- Bahira and his youth: the journey to Syria, the shepherd, a youth kept from the ways of his time ﷺ, the War of Fijar and the Pact of the Fudul.
- Khadija, the Ka’ba and al-Amin, up to Hira: al-Amin, the marriage and the children, the rebuilding of the Ka’ba and the Black Stone, the true dreams and the retreat.
How this page connects to the others
- The promise made concerning Ishmael, from whom the line descends: The prayer of Abraham.
- Bahira, the Jews of Yathrib and the other witnesses: The witnesses of the expectation.
- What follows, from the first revelation to the Hijra: part 3, The message and the Hijra.
Sources for this page
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. al-Saqqa, al-Abyari and Shalabi, al-Babi al-Halabi, 1955.
- Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Uyun al-athar, Dar al-Qalam, 1993.
- Ibn Kathir, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. Mustafa Abd al-Wahid, Dar al-Ma’rifa, 1976.
- al-Salihi al-Shami, Subul al-huda wa-l-rashad, ed. Abd al-Mawjud and Mu’awwad, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 1993.
- Hadiths: sunnah.com numbering.
- Research file “His birth and life before the message”, v1.0, 2 November 2026, “Framework and method” and “Summary for the site”.