Faithful Reflections

Outside observers, writing without any reason to flatter What Western Historians Said About Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Islamic Research Notes · Seerah · 30 minute read Before you start Non-Muslim historians have written about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ for centuries, sometimes in remarkable terms. This is the long version of my notes on what they actually said - with the citations checked. Lamartine on the scale of the achievement, Michael Hart on why he ranked him first out of a hundred, Montgomery Watt on why the sincerity question resolves the way it does, plus Carlyle, Gibbon, Margoliouth and others. I've also included a full treatment of the fabricated-quote problem in this genre, starting with the George Bernard Shaw passage that circulates everywhere and doesn't survive checking. What's on this page Why outside testimony is worth anything What these quotations can and can't do Lamartine: the question at the end What Lamartine was actually measuring ...

Seven pieces of advice, from a father who knew he wouldn't always be there Luqman's Advice to His Son: Wisdom from the Quran Islamic Research Notes · Qur'an Studies · extended version · 28 minute read In short There's a chapter of the Qur'an named after a man who wasn't a prophet, a king or a scholar. Luqman was, by most accounts, an enslaved African labourer — and God preserved his advice to his son in scripture for all time. Seven short instructions, covering belief, parents, accountability, prayer, courage, humility and how loudly you talk. This is the long version: each instruction taken on its own, the Arabic behind it, why the sequence is deliberate, what the surah pointedly does not say, and why the ordinary source of this wisdom is part of the point. What's on this page A chapter named after a slave Where this chapter sits What hikmah actually means Hikmah across the Qur'an Who Luqman was Ya bunayya — how he speaks to h...