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In the e-book format, it is necessary to place all footnotes at the end of the document, in effect, converting them to “endnotes”. This, however, makes it more difficult to view and refer to them while maintaining your reading position in the text. To address this difficulty, we have placed a “link” at each footnote reference in the text. By clicking on the link, you will be taken to the end of the file, to the point at which that specific footnote/endnote occurs. By clicking on the footnote number once you have read the note, you will be taken back to your reading position in the text.

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E-book Publisher’s Note

“And when the books are spread” (81:10)

It gives us great pleasure to present Maulana Muhammad Ali’s The Living Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad in this e-book format. With the increasing popularity of e-readers, e-books have, by many accounts, become a preferred means to read literature. In order to continue to have the world-renowned literary treasures written by Maulana Muhammad Ali and other Lahore Ahmadiyya authors easily accessible to the general public, we have ventured to generate e-books of our standard publications.

This e-book of The Living Thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad by Maulana Muhammad Ali is a result of this new venture. Additional titles converted to e-book format include, English Translation and Commentary of the Holy Quran, Teachings of Islam, Muhammad the Prophet, History of the Prophets, The Manual of Hadith, The Early Caliphate, Muhammad and Christ, and others.

In the e-book format, it is necessary to place all footnotes at the end of the document, in effect, converting them to “endnotes”. In this book, the footnotes are generally short citation references, and to move back and forth to the end of the document was deemed more cumbersome than placing the citation within the text. Therefore, we have placed all the footnotes within the text in a smaller type size for ease of reference.

We would like to thank our proofreaders within the USA and abroad for their meticulous checking of the proofs of this e-book. May Almighty Allah bless and reward all who have contributed and sacrificed in this cause.

Samina Malik,

Vice-President and Director of Translation and Publication,

Lahore Ahmadiyya Islamic Society USA

September 2011, Dublin, Ohio

Transliteration of Arabic Words

The transliteration system adapted for the e-book format from the standard transliteration system is given below. Due to the limitations of the e-book format in producing some of the diacritical signs, alternative diacritical signs have been used. These changes are indicated by red type.

Consonants

Arabic Letter — Sound — Represented by

hamzah — (sounds like h in hour — a sort of catch in the voice) — ’

ba — (same as b) — b

ta — (the Italian dental, softer than t) — t

tha — (between th in thing and s) — th

jim — (like g in gem) — j

ha — (very sharp but smooth guttural aspirate) — h

kha — (like ch in the Scotch word loch) — kh

dal — (Italian dental, softer than d) — d

dhal — (sounds between z and th in that) — dh

ra — (same as r) — r

za — (same as z) — z

sin — (same as s) — s

shin — (same as sh in she) — sh

sad — (strongly articulated s, like ss in hiss) — s

dad — (aspirated d, between d and z) — dz

ta — (strongly articulated palatal t) — t

za — (strongly articulated palatal z) — z

‘ain — (somewhat like a strong guttural hamzah, not a mere vowel) — ‘

ghain — (guttural g, but soft) — gh

fa — (same as f) — f

qaf — (strongly articulated guttural k) — q

kaf — (same as k) — k

lam — (same as l) — l

mim — (same as m) — m

nun — (same as n) — n

ha — (same as h) — h

waw — (same as w) — w

ya — (same as y) — y

Vowels

The vowels are represented as follows:

Short vowels:

— ’ — fathah, as u in tub — a

— ’ — kasrah, as i in pin — i

Long vowels:

— — long fathah, as a in father — a

— — long kasrah, as ee in deep — i

— ‘ — long dammah, as oo in moot — u

— — fathah before waw — au

— — fathah before ya — ai

Tanwin ’’ ’’ ‘’ is represented by an, in, un, respectively. The short and long vowels at the end of a word are shown as parts of the words, as qala where the final a stands for the fathah on lam, but the tanwin is shown as a separate syllable, as Muhammad-in.

Proper Names

Biblical proper names are not transliterated, but their Biblical form is adopted; other names are transliterated according to the rules of transliteration. Hence the reader will notice a change in such names as Mecca which should be written as Makkah, Medina which should be written as Madinah, Yemen which should be written as Yaman, and so on.

The following list shows the Biblical names and their Arabic equivalents:

Biblical Names— Arabic Form

Aaron — Harun

Abraham — Ibrahim

Adam — Adam

Amran — ‘Imran

Babel — Babil

David — Dawud

Egypt — Misr

Elias — Ilyas

Ezra — ‘Uzair

Elisha — Al-Yash‘a

Gabriel — Jibril

Gog — Ya’juj

Goliath — Jalut

Gospel — Injil

Isaac — Ishaq

Ishmael — Isma‘il

Jacob — Ya‘qub

Jesus — ‘Isa

Jew — Yahudi

Job — Ayyub

John — Yahya

Jonah — Yunus

Korah — Qarun

Lot — Lut

Magog — Ma’juj

Mary — Maryam

Michael — Mikal

Moses — Musa

Noah — Nuh

Pharaoh — Fir‘aun

Saul — Talut

Sheba — Saba’

Soloman — Sulaiman

Torah — Taurat

Zacharias — Zakariyya

Prefatory Note

The following brief sketch of the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the reformation he brought about and the great ideas which he gave to the world are based almost entirely on the Holy Quran. The Prophet’s best-known name is Muhammad, which means the praised one. Another name by which he was known is Ahmad which means the praising one. The Quran, properly Qur’an, is the name of the Scripture which the Prophet claimed to have been revealed to him by God. This too is a significant name, and means what is or should be read or recited. The name of the religion which the Prophet preached is Islam, which again is a significant name and means entering into peace; the follower of this religion is called a Muslim, which means one who has found peace. The terms Muhammadan and Muhammadanism have never been in vogue among the followers of this religion.

The Holy Quran was revealed to the Prophet piecemeal during a period of twenty-three years, from the fortieth year of his life to his death. It is divided into 114 chapters, each chapter being called a sura. The larger chapters are sub-divided into sections, each section being called a ruk‘u. Each chapter consists of a number of verses. The chapters are of unequal length, the longest chapter containing about one-twelfth of the entire book while the smallest contains only three verses. Some of the chapters were revealed entire, but the revelation of the majority of the larger chapters extended over years, and some of the smaller ones were also revealed in pieces. When a chapter was revealed in parts, the Prophet specified the place of the verse or verses revealed. Thus the arrangement of the verses in each chapter was entirely his own. The arrangement of the chapters was also the Prophet’s own work. Every part revealed was both written down and committed to memory, as soon as it was revealed, by the Prophet’s companions. The whole of the Quran according to the Prophet’s arrangement was safe in the memories of men in the Prophet’s life-time, while the written manuscripts were gathered together immediately after his death, by the orders of Abu Bakr, his first successor. Therefore, all Muslims wherever they may be living have the same Quran.

About two-thirds of the Holy Quran was revealed at Mecca where the Prophet passed thirteen years of his life after the Call, and about one-third at Medina where he passed the last ten years of his life. In arrangement the chapters revealed at Mecca are intermixed with those revealed at Medina. The following table will give the reader an approximate idea of the historical order of revelation of the chapters as they stand in the present arrangement:

Early Mecca period — 60 chapters: 1, 17-21, 50-56, 67-109, 111-114.

Middle Mecca period — 17 chapters: 29-32, 34-39, 40-46.

Last Mecca period — 15 chapters: 6, 7, 10-16, 22, 23, 25-28.

Early Medina period — 6 chapters: 2, 8, 47, 61, 62, 64.

Middle Medina period — 12 chapters: 3-5, 24, 33, 48, 57-60, 63, 65.

Last Medina period — 4 chapters: 9, 49, 66, 110.

The Holy Quran is the chief, and admittedly the most reliable, source of the Prophet’s teachings, the principles being all laid down in it. Sunna (lit., a way or rule or manner of acting), which means the Prophet’s practice, is a secondary source of what the Prophet taught. Hadith literally means a saying, but in its technical sense it is the narration or record of Sunna. In effect Sunna and Hadith cover the same ground and are applicable to the Prophet’s actions, practices and sayings, but Hadith is a wider term as it contains, in addition to the record of the Prophet’s practices, prophetical and historical elements. Sunna or Hadith was recognized from the very beginning as affording guidance in religious matters, and its need, its force as law and its preservation are all traceable to the life-time of the Prophet, though undoubtedly Hadith collections in book form came later.

The collection of Hadith passed through five stages before it assumed the form of Musnad and Jami‘. The latter brings the knowledge of Hadith to perfection, and it not only arranges reports according to their subject matter, which is not the case with Musnad, but is also of a more critical tone. Six collections of Hadith are recognized in this class by the Ahl Sunna as reliable, commonly known as Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Maja and Nasa’i. Of these Bukhari which is the first in point of time is the most critical also, and undoubtedly occupies the first place in reliability. In this treatise Bukhari has been referred to more frequently than any other collection. Occasionally the Mishkat, which is a collection of Hadith taken from the above six books and some other collections, such as Baihaqi, Dar Qutni, etc., and has been translated into English, has also been referred to.

All references given in this treatise without an indication of the name are to the Holy Quran, the first figure representing the number of the chapter and the second figure the number of the verse. All other references are indicated by name. In the reference to Hadith collections, the first figure represents the number of the book and the second the number of the chapter.

MUHAMMAD ALI

MUSLIM TOWN, LAHORE, INDIA. 3.12.46.