The sirah is the blessed life and example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). We need to read it. Why must we read the sirah? Here are five reasons it is essential.
1. To be a civilised, well-mannered and graceful person, care of one’s outward appearance is essential. However fine a person’s other qualities, if their appearance is not neat they will never be counted among the refined. Outward grace needs care of the body: cleanliness, the cut and grooming of hair and beard, the use of attar and perfume, and so on. Modest, decent dress is also an essential part of it. But differences of taste, of place, time and circumstance, and a lack of self-respect, a sense of inferiority and a habit of imitation lead to all kinds of affectation here, most of it unbecoming. If you want to adorn yourself as a truly graceful person, read the biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him), the finest of the refined and a matchless model of graceful living. There you will find the best grooming and the best dress, and following them will make you handsome and refined, intelligent and dignified.
2. A person’s inner world is worth more than their outward body; it is their true essence. It is the ground in which many virtues grow, a world of great possibility. Cultivated and cared for properly, it can raise an ordinary person to greatness. Neglected, it grows so many weeds and base instincts that it can turn a person into the fiercest of hyenas. Sadly, this side is badly neglected today, and people spend all their effort on material progress.
Read the life of the last Prophet (peace be upon him). There you will find truthfulness, courage, gentleness, firmness, trustworthiness, justice, sympathy and compassion, goodwill, generosity, patience and forbearance, affection, tolerance of others’ views and self-awareness: every element of noble character.
3. Human beings are social creatures; it is impossible to live cut off from society. In social life, good manners matter a great deal. Courteous behaviour turns enemies into friends, makes strangers one’s own and builds harmony in society. Rude behaviour does the opposite, which no society can want. But is that unwanted situation not what we see around us? Is our own lack of manners not largely to blame? We need to correct ourselves. People of every walk of life should make their conduct courteous and refined, and the lesson in such conduct is to be found in the books of sirah. How to sit in a gathering, how to greet and address a visitor, how to see off a guest, what a passer-by expects of you, how behaviour should differ with companions and with young and old, how to use gestures, how to ask and answer questions: to learn these rightly we must read the biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
4. The middle way is best in everything. Extremes and one-sided thinking are condemned by all. If you love someone, that love should have a limit. If enmity arises with someone for a just reason, it too should not cross its bounds. Earn money, but not in a frenzy, and do not let indifference to wealth turn into renunciation. Spending also needs moderation: miserliness is a fault, and extravagance is nothing to praise. The sirah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) gives a unique lesson in the middle way.
5. As human beings, each of us carries many responsibilities: to family, morality, society and the state. We are rarely mindful of them. Whoever reads the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) will feel this truth to the core. His whole life was the very picture of responsibility, and every page of the sirah shines with it.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report