Islam: Chapter Two: The Ḥadīth: The News of God's Messenger: 1. Muhammad the Messenger

This is a scholarly introduction to the earliest Islamic biography, the *Sīra* of Ibn Isḥāq (d. 768 CE), followed by extended primary-source excerpts from that work translated into English. The framing essay situates Muhammad's emergence within a specific geopolitical context — the collapse of South Arabian civilization, the Byzantine-Persian wars, and the declining caravan economy of Mecca — arguing that the rise of Islam is inseparable from this moment of regional instability and spiritual ferment. The excerpts themselves present foundational narrative material: Muhammad's first revelation on Mount Hirā', his initial terror and suicidal despair, Khadīja's steadying response, the Christian scholar Waraqa's recognition of the prophetic pattern, and the sequence of the first converts (Khadīja, ʿAlī, Zayd, Abū Bakr). A distinctive editorial claim runs throughout: Ibn Isḥāq's collection is praised precisely for its relative sobriety — closer to historical source material than later, more miracle-laden accounts — even while the editor acknowledges individual hadīths must be assessed on their own merits. The excerpt concludes with an early apologetic speech by Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib before the Negus of Abyssinia, framing Islam as a civilizing reform of pre-Islamic Arabian society. Readers interested in early Islamic historiography, the textual transmission of the *Sīra*, or the historical context of Muhammad's mission will find this a substantive, primary-source-grounded entry point.

Islam: Chapter Two: The Ḥadīth: The News of God's Messenger: 1. Muhammad the Messenger

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