Praise
be
to
Allah,
the
Lord
of
the
worlds,
and
peace
and
blessings
of
Allah
be
upon
the
Noblest
of
the
Prophets
and
Messengers,
our
Prophet
Muhammad,
and
upon
his
household
and
his
companions.
I  have
great
pleasure
in
presenting
to
the
readers
this
new
book
on
sirah,
Sirat
al-Nabi
~
and
the
Orientalists
(Makkan
Period)
by
Dr
M.M.Ali
which
has
been
published
by
King
Fahd
Complex
for
the
Printing
of
the Holy
Qur'an,
Madinah
in
collaboration
with
the
Centre
for
the
Service
of
Sunnah
and
Sirah,
Madinah.
The
orientalists
have
been
studying
the
sirah
with
a view
to
casting
aspersion
on
the
life
of
the
Prophet
(peace
and
blessings
of
Allah
be
upon
him)
and
discrediting
his
personality.
Their
approach
has
differed
from
time
to
time.
Open
attack
and
vituperation
in
the
eighteenth
century
have
now
given
way
to
a seemingly
sympathetic
approach
to
his
life.
In
this
study
the
author
has
critically
analysed
the
works
of
three
famous
orientalists,
William
Muir,
D.S.Margoliouth
and
W.
Montgomery
Watt,
and
has
successfully
refuted
the
charges
levelled
by
them
against
the
life
and
character
of
the
Prophet
~
with
an
erudition
which
the
treatment
of
such
a
subject
requires.
May
Allah
make
this
book
useful,
and
grant
the
Custodian
of
the
Two
Holy
Mosques ample
reward
for
his
ceaseless
service
to
the
Qur'an,
the
Sunnah
and
the
Sirah

he
S'irah
and
Orientalism
is
no
new
subject.
In
the
past
as
well
as
in
modem
times
scholars
have
dealt
with
it
from
time
to
time.
Of
late
some
serious
studies
have
appeared
on
the
methods
and
approaches
of
the
orienta-
lists
with
regard
to
Islamic
themes
in
general
and
the
S/rah
in
particular.
1
Some
independent
works
have
also
appeared,
particularly
in
Arabic,
speci-
fically
on
the
subject
of
the
Slrah
and
the
orientalists.
Valuable
and
useful
as
these
works
are,
there
still
remains
a  good
deal
to
be
done
in
analyzing
and
evaluating
the
main
orientalist
works
on
the
Slrah.
Especially
it
is
nece-
ssary
to
take
into
account
the
whole
range
of
arguments
and
evidences
on
which
the
views
and
conclusions
of
individual
scholars
are
based.
The
present
work
is
an
effort
in
that
direction.
It
needs
hardly
any
emphasizing
that
the
views
of
any
individual
scholar
on
any
particular
subject
are
scarcely
all
his
own.
He
necessarily
reflects
the
pattern
of
knowledge
existing
in
his
time
and
draws
and
builds
upon
the
results
of
the
researches
of
his
predecessors.
To
study
the
work
of
any
indi-
vidual
scholar
thus
necessarily
involves
referring
to
the
works
of
his
pre-
decessors.
It
has
therefore
been
thought
more
useful
to
take
for
study
a
couple
or
more
of
scholars,
not
contemporary
with
one
another,
but
whose
works
cover
a  certain
period
of
time.
On
this
consideration
I  have
selected
for
the
present
study
the
works
of
William
Muir
(
1819-1905),
D.S.
Margoliouth
(1858-1940)
and
W.
Montgomery
Watt
(1909-).
The
works
of
these
scholars
span
the
period
from
the
mid-nineteenth
century
to
the
present
day.
William
Muir's
work,
The
Life
of
Mahomet,
appeared
for
the
first
time
in
1858,
while
the
latest
of
Watt's
works
on
the
subject,
Mu~ammad's
Mecca,
appeared
as
late
as
1988.
It  must
be
emphasized
at
the
outset
that
the
present
study
takes
into
con-
sideration
the
principal
works
of
the
above
mentioned
scholars
on
the
Slrah,
not
all
their
works
on
all
the
subjects
they
have
dealt
with.
Similarly
it  need

It is worth mentioning that orientalists are still studying the biography of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) for the removal of his purified biography and stabbing his character. Their methods vary in the way of the plain Of insulting and cursing and clinging to Muslims in their faith and the biography of their prophet and broadcast suspicions and falsehoods.