Community • Islamic Studies • Prophet Muhammad • Seeking Knowledge

A Very Unique Pleasure

by Suhaib Webb
February 16, 2010
2 min read

Once, a young boy, around the age of 10 or 11 came across the sirah of the Prophet ﷺ. After reading for sometime, his heart was moved. Let’s move from my words to his and try and benefit.

“Suddenly I felt, while reading that book, a very unique pleasure. For, indeed, it was a pleasure that differed from all other forms of happiness and delights I had known in my childhood. It was not the happiness associated with eating a nice meal after hunger, nor was it the happiness related to wearing new clothes on `Eid day. It was not the happiness of being able to play with my friends after longing to do so, nor was it the happiness found in getting some free time for relaxation after a tiring day of studies. It was not the happiness of having succeded in winning a game [sports], nor was it the happiness of visiting an old friend or being visited by a noble guest. For, indeed, those delights and times of joy could not compare to this happiness and delight. Indeed, this joy and happiness is one whose sweetness I know [well] but I could not describe it then. And I must admit, that up until this day, I cannot explain it correctly nor express it in words.”

Sh. Ali Hassan al-Nadwi (may Allah have mercy upon him) describing his first encounter with a book on the life of the Prophet (rahmat li al-’almin) at the age of 10 or 11.

Many are going to celebrate the Mawlid this year. Try, with your family, roommates or fellow masjid goers to read the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ.


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About the author

Suhaib Webb

Suhaib Webb is a contemporary American-Muslim educator, activist, and lecturer. His work bridges classical and contemporary Islamic thought, addressing issues of cultural, social and political relevance to Muslims in the West. After converting to Islam in 1992, Webb left his career in the music industry to pursue his passion in education. He earned a Bachelor’s in Education from the University of Central Oklahoma and received intensive private training in the Islamic Sciences under a renowned Muslim Scholar of Senegalese descent. Webb was hired as the Imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, where he gave khutbas (sermons), taught religious classes, and provided counselling to families and young people; he also served as an Imam and resident scholar in communities across the U.S.

From 2004-2010, Suhaib Webb studied at the world’s preeminent Islamic institution of learning, Al-Azhar University, in the College of Shari`ah. During this time, after several years of studying the Arabic Language and the Islamic legal tradition, he also served as the head of the English Translation Department at Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah.

Outside of his studies at Al-Azhar, Suhaib Webb completed the memorization of the Quran in the city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. He has been granted numerous traditional teaching licenses (ijazat), adhering to centuries-old Islamic scholarly practice of ensuring the highest standards of scholarship. Webb was named one of the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in 2010.

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  • One of my close friends and teachers (as well as a co-author of this blog) AbdulSattar Ahmed recommended this seerah book as the “best seerah book he’s ever read that was written in English.”

    After reading it, I have to agree – the book “Muhammad: Man and Prophet” that Imam Suhaib linked in the post, is a great read. Well-written, it flows and makes logical sense and has great focus, very easy to understand and derive lessons from for the reader masha Allah. I highly recommend it.

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  • Great Post with intended right guidance!

    No doubt indeed, the best way to get to know and show one’s love to our beloved Prophet (pbuh) is to read his miraculous seerah with the intention of self-devlopment. That is indeed the way the greatest nation known to man was formed, through living with the Prophet (pbuh).

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  • This is one point that Muslims don’t know how to describe; it is ineffable – the ‘measurement’ for loving their Prophet Muhammadﷺ. Some Muslims chuck the Milaad/Mawlid into our faces with a determination that we take to the streets as they do to publicly celebrate his existence (and scare the neighbourhood), others relapse into ‘astagh’firullah’ at the mention of any ritualistic event *shudder*.

    To obey a person you have to know them. To know that person there needs to be some respect, communication. To develop it into love and commitment you have to study on their actions, movements, ideas and surroundings. It isn’t even so much as how Allah regards Muhammad the man & prophet (http://quran.com/68/4) It’s how he was when alone, with his family, his companions, his enemies. One sincere smile from this man & prophet sparks your faith and you fall in love.

    I gotta get me that Seerah inshAllah and add to collection. I have the one by Martin Ling and the 4-volume book by Ibn Kathir in English; is br. Adil’s book on a par with them?

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  • SubhanAllah.
    jazakAllah for sharing…

    whenever i come across some thing so beautiful, i feel like i dont know what Islam is, i feel like im a little a baby who has so much to learn and implement.

    jazakAllah for the awesome advice… it is imperative that we acquaint ourselves with the Seerah of RasoolAllah sallallahu alyhe wasallam

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  • Jazak’Allahu Khairan for the info. I have read the one by Martin Lings and Karen Armstrong, but I still have to read the Sealed Nectar, which I own, but will definitely get a hold of this book when I next get the chance. Shukran.

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