A short, chronological life of the Prophet ﷺ — set out in the order in which Imām al-Qasṭallānī arranged it in his famous work al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyya. Written plainly enough for a child to follow, and for a parent to read with them.
We begin our sīrah with one of the most loved books ever written on the life of the Prophet ﷺ — al-Mawāhib al-Ladunniyya, "The God-given Gifts, through the Muhammadan Favours", by the Egyptian scholar Imām Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Qasṭallānī (851–923 AH), the same imam who wrote Irshād al-Sārī, the great commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.
Imām al-Qasṭallānī does not simply list dates. He arranges the Prophet's life into maqāṣid — chapters of purpose — beginning with his noble lineage and blessed birth, then his upbringing, his prophethood, the migration to Madinah, his expeditions, his miracles, his character and appearance, and finally his passing and the honour Allah gave him. The book became so treasured that Imām al-Zurqānī (d. 1122 AH) wrote a twelve-volume commentary on it alone.
What follows on this page is our own brief summary, laid out in the order al-Qasṭallānī follows. It is a first taste, not a translation — the book itself deserves to be read with a teacher.
Sixty-three years — forty before prophethood, thirteen calling to Allah in Makkah, and ten building a community in Madinah.
The forty years in which Allah prepared him: orphaned, raised in the desert, trusted by his people, and known among them as al-Amīn — the trustworthy one — long before a single verse was revealed.
He ﷺ was born in Makkah into the noblest family of the Quraysh, of the clan of Banū Hāshim — the day most often given being Monday, the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal. His father ʿAbdullāh had already passed away before his birth, so he was born an orphan, and his mother Āminah bint Wahb named him Muhammad.
He was first nursed by Thuwaybah, then entrusted to Ḥalīmah al-Saʿdiyyah, who took him out to the clean air and pure Arabic of the desert. Blessing entered her home from the day he did. It was there, as a small child, that the angels opened his chest and purified his heart.
Āminah took him to visit relatives in Madinah, and died on the return journey at al-Abwā'. He was six years old, and now had neither father nor mother.
His grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, chief of Makkah, loved him deeply and took him in — but died two years later. His uncle Abū Ṭālib then took him into his own home, and protected him for the next forty years.
He travelled with Abū Ṭālib's caravan towards Syria. At Buṣrā the monk Baḥīrā recognised the signs of prophethood in him, and told his uncle to guard him carefully and take him home.
He tended sheep — as every prophet did — and worked in trade. He took part in Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl, a pact among the Quraysh to stand by anyone wronged in Makkah, and said years later that he would still answer such a call in Islam.
He traded on behalf of Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, a noble and wealthy woman of Quraysh. His honesty and character so impressed her that she proposed marriage. She was the first to believe in him, and for the twenty-five years until she died he married no one else.
When the Quraysh rebuilt the Kaʿbah, the clans nearly came to war over who would set the Black Stone in place. They agreed to accept the judgement of the next man to enter — and it was him ﷺ. He laid the stone on his cloak, had a man from each clan take a corner, and set it in place with his own hands. They already called him al-Amīn: the trustworthy.
Thirteen years of patience: quiet invitation, then open preaching, then persecution, boycott and grief — and not one year in which he stopped calling people to their Lord.
He would withdraw to the cave of Ḥirā' to worship alone. There the angel Jibrīl came to him with the first words of the Qur'ān. He returned home trembling, and Khadījah covered him, comforted him, and took him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal — who recognised that the same one who had come to Mūsā had come to him.
For roughly three years he invited people privately. The first to accept were those closest to him: Khadījah, Abū Bakr, ʿAlī — still a boy — and Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. Through Abū Bakr came many of the earliest companions.
Commanded to make the call public, he climbed the hill of al-Ṣafā and called the clans of Quraysh together. They had never once known him to lie — yet when he called them to worship Allah alone, most turned away, and the opposition began.
As the torture of the weakest Muslims grew, he sent a group of companions across the sea to Abyssinia, to the just Christian king al-Najāshī, who refused to hand them back. It was the first hijrah in Islam.
Two of the strongest men of Quraysh — his uncle Ḥamzah, and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb — entered Islam, and the Muslims were able to pray openly at the Kaʿbah for the first time.
Quraysh sealed a document cutting off all trade and marriage with Banū Hāshim until they surrendered him. For about three years they were shut in the valley, eating leaves, the children crying with hunger — until the document was found eaten away and the boycott collapsed.
Within a short time he lost the uncle who had protected him for forty years, and the wife who had believed in him from the first hour. Quraysh grew bolder than ever. He never stopped mentioning Khadījah with love for the rest of his life.
He went to Ṭā'if to seek support, and its leaders refused him and set the street children on him until his blessed feet bled. Offered the destruction of the town, he refused — and prayed instead that Allah bring faith out of their descendants.
In a single night he was carried from the Sacred Mosque in Makkah to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā in Jerusalem, where he led all the prophets in prayer, and was then raised through the heavens to a station no creature had ever reached. From that night came the gift the whole Ummah still lives by: the five daily prayers.
At the pilgrimage season, men of Yathrib met him at ʿAqabah and believed. Twelve pledged themselves the first year; the following year seventy-three men and two women pledged to protect him as they protected their own families. Yathrib opened its doors, and the migration began.
Ten years in which a persecuted band became a nation: a mosque, a brotherhood, a written covenant, a qiblah of its own, and finally the peaceful return to Makkah.
With Quraysh plotting to kill him, he left Makkah with Abū Bakr. They hid three nights in the cave of Thawr, where he told his companion the words the Qur'ān records: do not grieve, Allah is with us. He reached Qubā' and built the first mosque of Islam, then entered Yathrib — from that day, al-Madīnah. His migration became the beginning of the Muslim calendar.
He built al-Masjid al-Nabawī with his own hands, joined every Muhājir to an Anṣārī brother who shared his home and wealth with him, and drew up a written covenant setting out the rights and duties of everyone living in the city, Muslim and Jew alike.
The command came to turn in prayer from Jerusalem towards the Kaʿbah, and the fast of Ramaḍān was made obligatory upon the believers.
Three hundred and thirteen Muslims, poorly armed, met an army of roughly a thousand Quraysh at the wells of Badr. Allah gave them a victory that changed everything, and the Qur'ān named that day the criterion — the day truth was separated from falsehood.
Quraysh returned in force. Victory turned to loss when the archers left their posts; seventy companions were martyred, among them his beloved uncle Ḥamzah, and the Prophet ﷺ himself was wounded. From that day the Qur'ān taught the Muslims the lessons of obedience and patience.
The tribes united to finish Madinah once and for all. On the advice of Salmān al-Fārisī a trench was dug around the city — the Prophet ﷺ carrying earth alongside his companions, a stone bound to his stomach from hunger. After a month of siege a bitter wind scattered the armies, and they never attacked Madinah again.
He set out for ʿUmrah and was stopped at Ḥudaybiyah. Under a tree his companions pledged themselves to him — Bayʿat al-Riḍwān — and he then accepted terms that seemed to give Quraysh everything. The Qur'ān called it a clear victory: in the two years of peace that followed, more people entered Islam than in all the years before. From here he wrote to the kings of the earth, calling them to Allah.
The fortresses of Khaybar were opened, and in Dhū al-Qaʿdah he returned to Makkah and performed the ʿUmrah that had been denied him the year before, while Quraysh watched from the hills.
Three thousand Muslims faced a vastly greater Byzantine force. Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, then Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, then ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah were martyred carrying the banner, until Khālid ibn al-Walīd took it up and brought the army home.
When Quraysh broke the treaty, he entered Makkah with ten thousand men and almost no blood was shed. He came in with his head bowed low on his camel in humility, cleared the idols from the Kaʿbah, and to the people who had driven him out, tortured his companions and killed his uncle, he said: go, you are free. Most of Makkah accepted Islam that day.
The tribes of Hawāzin ambushed the Muslims in the valley of Ḥunayn, and the large army nearly broke before Allah steadied them. He then besieged Ṭā'if — the town that had once stoned him — and afterwards gave away the spoils so generously that men said he gave like one who feared no poverty.
In fierce heat and hardship he led an expedition to the northern frontier at Tabūk. Afterwards delegations came to Madinah from every corner of Arabia, tribe after tribe entering Islam — which is why the ninth year is called ʿĀm al-Wufūd, the Year of Delegations.
He performed Ḥajj with more than a hundred thousand companions, and on the plain of ʿArafah delivered the sermon that abolished the blood feuds and the usury of the old days, protected the life, property and honour of every Muslim, commanded good treatment of women, and declared that no Arab is better than a non-Arab except by piety. There the verse was revealed:
He fell ill, and when he could no longer lead the prayer he instructed Abū Bakr to lead it in his place. He passed away on a Monday, in the chamber of ʿĀ'ishah, at the age of sixty-three, and was buried there. Abū Bakr steadied the shaken Muslims with words they never forgot: whoever worshipped Muhammad — Muhammad has died; and whoever worships Allah — Allah is living and never dies.
Imām al-Qasṭallānī gives whole chapters to how the Prophet ﷺ looked, spoke, ate, sat, laughed and treated people — because the sīrah is not history to be memorised, it is a life to be imitated. This is the branch of knowledge the scholars call the shamā'il.
Those who sat with him described a man neither tall nor short, with a wide forehead, black eyes, long lashes and a full beard; hair falling to his ears or shoulders; skin that seemed to carry light.
Allah described him in a single verse that the scholars say is the highest praise given to any human being:
His enemies trusted him with their property even while they plotted against him. They called him al-Ṣādiq al-Amīn — the truthful, the trustworthy.
He carried them, played with them, shortened his prayer when he heard a baby crying, and never struck a child or a servant.
He gave away whatever came to him and kept nothing back for tomorrow, and was most generous of all in Ramaḍān.
On the very day he had the power to take revenge on Makkah, he forgave the whole city.
He mended his own sandals, helped his family at home, sat on the floor, and slept on a mat that left marks on his blessed side.
He stood in prayer at night until his feet swelled, and when asked why, said: shall I not be a grateful servant?
Imām al-Qasṭallānī devotes a long chapter to the signs Allah gave through him — what the scholars call aʿlām al-nubuwwa, the proofs of prophethood. The scholars count them in the hundreds. These are the ones every Muslim child should know.
Every other prophet's miracle ended with him. The staff of Mūsā and the healing of ʿĪsā were seen by the people of their time and then passed into history. The miracle of Muhammad ﷺ is a book — sent to an unlettered man, unmatched in its language, unchanged in fourteen centuries, and memorised word-perfect by children in every country on earth. Your child memorising it is that miracle continuing.
The greatest of them allWhen the Quraysh demanded a sign, the moon split in two before them at Minā. The Qur'ān itself records the event.
Sūrah al-Qamar 54:1On more than one journey, when the army had no water, he placed his hand in a vessel and water flowed from between his fingers until every man and animal had drunk.
He used to lean on a palm trunk when he preached. When a pulpit was built for him and he left it, the trunk cried out like a child until he came down and embraced it, and it grew quiet.
At the digging of the trench, and at the wedding feast of Zaynab, a small amount of food fed hundreds and there was still food left over.
Carried in one night from Makkah to Jerusalem and then through the heavens — and when Quraysh questioned him about a city he had never seen, he described it to them exactly.
At Khaybar he wiped the inflamed eyes of ʿAlī and they were healed at once, and he was given the banner that same day.
He told his companions of the deaths at Mu'tah as they happened hundreds of miles away; he marked the spots where the leaders of Quraysh would fall at Badr, and not one fell elsewhere; and he promised his hungry, besieged companions the treasures of Persia and Rome — which they lived to see.
He walked out of a house surrounded by assassins; the horse of Surāqah, chasing him for a bounty, sank into firm ground; and a spider's web and a nesting bird were enough to turn armed men away from the mouth of the cave of Thawr.
Companions reported stones that greeted him with salām before prophethood, and animals that came to him to complain of their owners.
The maghāzī — the military expeditions of the Madinan years — take up one of the longest chapters of al-Mawāhib. Not one of them happened in Makkah: for thirteen years the Muslims were beaten and not permitted to strike back. Fighting was only allowed after they had a city to defend.
313 Muslims against roughly a thousand Quraysh. Fourteen Muslims were martyred; seventy of the enemy were killed and seventy captured, including men of the highest rank in Makkah.
Captives who could read were freed for teaching ten Muslim children to write.A Jewish tribe of Madinah broke the city covenant after Badr and were expelled from the city rather than fought.
Three thousand Quraysh came for revenge. The Muslims were winning until the archers left the hill for the spoils; the cavalry came round behind them. Seventy companions were martyred, among them Ḥamzah, and the Prophet ﷺ was wounded in the face.
The lesson the Qur'ān drew from it: obey the command even when victory looks certain.The day after Uḥud — wounded and exhausted, they marched out again so Quraysh would not think them broken. Quraysh went home.
Two treacheries in the same year: parties of teachers and reciters were invited out under promises of safety and killed. He grieved over them for a month in his prayer.
After a plot to kill him was uncovered, the tribe was besieged and then allowed to leave Madinah with what their camels could carry. Sūrah al-Ḥashr was revealed about it.
A tribe massing to attack Madinah was met first. On the return journey the slander against ʿĀ'ishah began, and Allah declared her innocence in the Qur'ān.
Ten thousand from every allied tribe came to end Madinah. On Salmān al-Fārisī's advice a trench was dug across the open side of the city — an idea Arabia had never seen. After a month of siege, hunger and fear, a freezing wind tore up their camp and they left.
After this day the Muslims were never again attacked in their own city.The tribe that broke its treaty during the siege — when the city could have been destroyed from within — was judged by the arbitrator they themselves chose, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, according to their own law.
Not a battle at all — a treaty, on terms so one-sided that some companions wept. Ten years of peace, and the Muslims to turn back that year without ʿUmrah.
The Qur'ān called it a clear victory: more entered Islam in those two years of peace than in the nineteen before.The northern fortresses that had organised the tribes against Madinah were opened. ʿAlī was given the banner after his eyes were healed. The land was left with its farmers on a share of the harvest.
Under the treaty, he returned to Makkah and performed the ʿUmrah he had been turned back from, while Quraysh watched from the hills of the city they had exiled him from.
Three thousand against a vastly larger Byzantine force. Zayd, then Jaʿfar, then Ibn Rawāḥah were martyred carrying the banner, until Khālid ibn al-Walīd took it and withdrew the army intact.
Ten thousand men entered the city that had tortured and exiled them, and almost no blood was shed. The idols were cleared from the Kaʿbah. To the people who had done everything to him, he said: go, you are free.
The greatest day of forgiveness in human history — and the day most of Makkah became Muslim.Days after Makkah, the Hawāzin ambushed them in a narrow valley and the large army nearly broke — because some had said "we cannot be defeated today, we are so many". The Qur'ān named that thought as the reason.
He besieged the town that had once set its children on him with stones, then lifted the siege and prayed for their guidance. They came to him as Muslims the following year.
A march of hundreds of miles into the desert in burning heat and famine, against the greatest empire of the age. No battle took place. It is remembered instead for who gave everything to fund it, and for the three companions who stayed behind and whose repentance Allah announced in the Qur'ān.
The last expedition he ﷺ led. He passed away less than two years later.Our Islamic Studies classes teach the sīrah story by story, so a child grows up knowing the Prophet ﷺ as someone they love — not a list of dates they forget. The first lesson is free.
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