1 Ibn Katheer The Valley Came Alive Life of the Last Messenger Taken from Al-Bidayah wa'l-Nihayah Translation & Compiled By: Darussalam Research Center Published By: Darussalam Publishers & Distributers Copyright: 2 Darussalam Publishers ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic of mechanical, including photocopying and recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher. Contents Preface to the Revision ..................................................................... 8 Publisher’s Preface ......................................................................... 13 The Biography of the Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) ......................................................................... 16 Chapter on Mention of His Illustrious Lineage and the Nobility of His Excellent Origins ............................................................................ 16 3 Chapter on The Birth of the Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) ..................................................................... 20 A Description of His Noble Birth (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) ........................................................................................ 23 His Nursemaids and Wet Nurses .................................................... 30 Wet-Nursing of the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) by Haleemah Bint Abi Dhu’aib As-Sa‘diyyah ....................... 31 Regarding His Journey With His Uncle, Abu Talib to Ash-Sham and What Happened With Baheera, the Monk ...................................... 37 Regarding His Upbringing and Allah’s Sufficiency for Him, His Protection of Him ........................................................................... 39 The Part Played By the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) in the Sacrilegious War ................................................. 41 The Part Played By the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) in the Treaty of Al-Fudool (Virtuous) ........................... 42 Marriage of the Prophet (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him)to Khadeejah Bint Khuwailid Ibn Asad Ibn ‘Abdul-‘Uzza Ibn Qusayy ........................................................................................................ 44 Quraish’s Rebuilding of the Ka‘bah Five Years Before the Start of His Prophetic Mission ..................................................................... 46 The Book of the Sending of the Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) and Mention of the Signs of That54 The Story of ‘Amr Ibn Murrah Al-Juhani ....................................... 64 Regarding the Communications of the Jinns: Being the Words They Placed On the Lips of the Soothsayers and Which They Caused to Be Heard From Within the Idols .......................................................... 71 Chapter on How the Revelation Began to Come to the Messenger of Allah And Mention of the First Thing Revealed to Him From the Qur’an ............................................................................................. 76 Mention of His Age at the Time When He Was Sent and the History of It.................................................................................................. 78 4 Section Regarding the Prevention of the Jinn and the Repelling of the Shayatin (devils) from Eavesdropping When the Qur’an Was Revealed ......................................................................................... 92 Section Regarding How the Revelation Came to the Messenger of Allah ............................................................................................... 95 Section Regarding the First People to Embrace Islam, Then Mention of the Earliest Companions to Embrace Islam .............................. 101 The Story of How Hamzah Ibn ‘Abdul Muttalib, the Paternal Uncle of the Prophet, Embraced Islam .................................................... 111 The Story of How Abu Dharr Embraced Islam ............................ 113 The Story of How Dimad Embraced Islam................................... 115 The Story of Al-Irashi and the Quraish’s Attempt at Harming the Prophet .......................................................................................... 126 Heightened Persecution of Weak Muslims ................................... 130 The polytheists’ disputation of the Messenger of Allah and his establishing an irrefutable proof on them and their acknowledgement of the Truth ................................................................................... 140 Hijrah of those who migrated among the Companions of Allah’s Messenger from Makkah to Abyssinia ......................................... 145 A Mention of (Abu Bakr) As-Siddiq’s Resolve to Migrate to Abyssinia ...................................................................................... 170 The Mentioning of the Annulment of the Pact of Boycott ............ 172 The Story of ‘A’sha Banu Qais Ibn Tha‘labah ............................. 178 The Story of the Wrestling of Rukanah and How He Sees the Tree Which the Prophet Called and It Returned ................................... 179 The Journey by Night of Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessing of Allah be upon him, from Makkah to Jerusalem and then his ascension there from to the heavens .............................................................. 185 The Splitting of the Moon in the Time of the Prophet, Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon Him .................................................. 197 5 The Death of Abu Talib, the uncle of Allah’s Messenger and soon after, Khadeejah Bint Khuwaiylid, the wife of Allah’s Messenger ...................................................................................................... 198 Concerning the death of Khadeejah and a mention of some of her excellence and virtues ................................................................... 200 The Prophet’s Marriage to ‘A’ishah Bint Abu Bakr As-Siddiq and Sawdah Bint Zam‘ah .................................................................... 202 Allah’s Messenger Goes to the People of At-Ta’if to Invite Them to Allah and to the Aid of His Religion and They Reject Him ......... 204 Arrival of the Delegates of the Ansar Year After Year Till They Pledge Allegiance One After the Other ........................................ 212 Iyas Ibn Mu‘adh’s Acceptance of Islam ....................................... 213 The Dawn of Islam Among the Ansar .......................................... 216 The Story of the Second Pledge of ‘Aqabah ................................. 222 Commencement of the Migration to Madinah .............................. 229 Circumstances Leading to the Migration of Allah’s Messenger ... 235 Migration of Allah’s Messenger from Makkah to Madinah along with Abu Bakr As-Siddiq ..................................................................... 239 The Story of Umm Ma’bad Al-Khuzaa’iyyah .............................. 254 Prophet Muhammad’s Entry into Madinah, where He Established His Residence, and Related Issues ...................................................... 257 Notable events and occurrences of the first year of the hijrah of the Prophet .......................................................................................... 266 Abdullah Ibn Salam Accepts Islam ............................................... 270 Khutbah of the Messenger of Allah on that Day .......................... 272 The Building of his Noble Mosque During His Stay at the Residence of Abu Ayyoob Al-Ansari ............................................................ 274 Story of the Construction of the Prophet’s Mosque upon his plan 276 A Reminder on the Excellence of this Noble and Exalted Mosque ...................................................................................................... 277 6 The Fever of Madinah Afflicts the Muhajiroon, but the Messenger was Spared by the Wisdom and Power of Allah (SWT). He Supplicated Allah and He Removed the Fever from Madinah ..... 279 Establishment of a Pact of Brotherhood Between the Muhajiroon and the Ansar ....................................................................................... 281 The Prophet’s Formation of Brotherhood Between the Muhajiroon and the Ansar ................................................................................ 283 The death of Abu Umamah As’ad Ibn Zurarah, One of the Twelve Delegates on the Night of the Pledge of 'Aqabah ......................... 286 The Birth of Abdullah Ibn Az-Zubair in Shawwal, the year of Hijrah ...................................................................................................... 287 Allah’s Messenger Consummated His Marriage with 'A’ishah in Shawwal ........................................................................................ 288 The Legislation of Adhan (the call to prayer) Upon the Arrival of the Prophet in Madinah ....................................................................... 288 Expedition of Hamzah Ibn Abdul-Muttalib .................................. 290 The Expedition of Ubaidah Ibn Al-Harith Ibn Abdul-Muttalib .... 290 Expedition of Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqas ............................................. 291 Events of the Second Year of Hijrah ............................................ 291 The Book of Military Expedition .................................................. 292 Those Who Accepted Islam Among the Jews Out of Dissimulation ...................................................................................................... 296 The first military expedition was the expedition of Al-Abwa’ Also Referred to as the Battle of Waddan ............................................. 297 The Ghazwah of Buwat Toward Radwa ....................................... 300 Detachment of Abdullah Ibn Jahsh Which Was Incidental to the Great Battle of Badr ................................................................................ 302 The Changing of the Qiblah in the Second Year of Hijrah Prior to the Battle of Badr ................................................................................ 305 7 The Obligation of Fast of Ramadan in the Second Year Prior to the Battle of Badr ................................................................................ 309 Preface to the Revision In the Name of Allah (SWT), the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful All praise and thanks be to Allah (SWT), Who revived knowledge of His religion and caused it to blossom forth after it had all but disappeared, and Who demolished the false conjectures of the apostates. I praise Him and I seek refuge with Him from the sins which weigh upon the backs of mankind. I worship Him and seek His aid in removing hindrances and difficulties in the practice of my religion. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah (SWT), Alone, without partners and I bear witness that Muhammad – who, by Allah’s leave, brought about the dawn of faith to the darkness and misguidance which existed in the hearts of mankind – is the slave and Messenger of Allah. May the Blessings and Peace of Allah be upon him in perpetuity. O, Allah! We seek Your favor and through You we seek to ward off affliction. We ask You to protect us and to grant us mercy. Our Lord! Make not our hearts deviate after You have already guided us. Make it easy for us to perform our deeds in the way that You have taught us. Make us grateful for what You have given us and make plain a path for us which leads to You. Open up the doors between us and You by which we may arrive before You. To You belong the keys to the heavens and the Earth and You are Most Able to do all things. To proceed: 8 Among the blessings which Allah (SWT) has bestowed upon us, the community of Muslims is that He has made it easy for us to follow the path of guidance, and He has opened the doors of knowledge by making available to us these new publications, which present to us the writings of the early scholars and reveal to us what they said regarding legal verdicts, history, events, information and lessons. These scholars opened a clear beacon of light for all those Muslims seeking guidance and they set up for us a signpost in which there is neither deviation nor crookedness. Whoever follows it will arrive safely at his desired destination and whoever diverts from it will be lost forever. They have written these books and treatises and made clear to us therein events, information and virtues. Among such books is this unique work, Al-Bidayah Wan-Nihayah, by the Imam, the Hafiz, the master scholar of hadeeth, ‘Imaduddeen Isma‘eel Ibn Katheer Al-Qurashi – may Allah have mercy on him. This book was greeted with approval by the vast majority of Muslims. No Islamic library would be complete without it. In it, the author has recorded what Allah, Most High has made easy for him about the history of mankind, from the beginning of creation, starting with the creation of the Throne and the Kursi (Footstool), the heavens and the Earth and all that they contain and all that lies between them, such as the angels, the jinn and the devils. He also described how Adam (Peace be upon him) was created, and told the stories of the prophets up to the days of the Children of Isra’eel and the Days of Ignorance (Jahiliyyah), until the advent of Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), which heralded the end of Prophethood. He then recorded his Seerah. Then he recorded the events which took place up to his own time. He also spoke of the trials and battles, the signs of the approach of the Hour, then the sending forth of mankind and the terrors of the Resurrection, which he described in detail. He then described the Hell-fire, with all its horrors, and Paradise and all the good things contained therein. He called this particular volume of his book: AnNihayah Fil-Fitan Wal-Malahim (The 9 Ending in Trials and Battles). As for the book which is in our hands today, it is Al-Bidayah. By Allah’s Grace, I came to know brother Abdul Malik Mujahid, the general manager of Darussalam Publishing in Riyadh. He visited me in my humble office in Damascus and suggested to me the idea of creating a summarized version of this wonderful book. I prayed for Allah’s Guidance in the matter and sought help from Him in completing the project. Allah (SWT) enabled me to make the acquaintance of a number of people of knowledge and experience in this field and a plan of action for the work was written. It consisted of ten principal points and we then started the task, seeking help from the Lord of the heavens and the Earth. All of us exerted our utmost efforts in this task, making repeated revisions and corrections, until we reached the point where, by Allah’s Permission, we completed it and it was published in the form which is in your hands today. The Plan of Action for This Book: 1. Summarization of the text. This was achieved by concentrating on the most important events narrated in the book. In doing so, we took care not to leave out any important details which would cause loss of meaning or import. 2. We relied on a number of printed and handwritten copies of the book and in cases where any contradiction or omission was found, we succeeded in establishing the most accurate and authentic text. 3. We left out the ahadeeth which proved to be baseless or weak and confined ourselves to the ahadeeth which are authentic or hasan and those which are acceptable due to the existence of other supporting narrations. On rare occasions, when it was found that there were no other 10