CHAPTER FOUR — Seerah as a Movement

CHAPTER FOUR Seerah as a Movement § It is He who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon, each gliding in its orbit. —The Quran, 21:33 Biographers of the Prophet usually treat their subject as if he were a person endowed with great magical powers, one who by mysterious means brought the whole of Arabia under his wing. These books read like fairy tales; even events which have no miraculous content have been given a fanciful, miraculous interpretation. Take the case of Suhaib ibn Sinan’s migration from Makkah to Madinah. When some Quraysh youths blocked his path, Suhaib pleaded with them: “If I let you have all my wealth, will you let me go?” They said that they would. Suhaib had a few ounces of silver with him. He gave it all to them and carried on to Madinah. According to a tradition in Baihaqi, Suhaib said that when the Prophet saw him in Madinah he told Suhaib that his trading had been very profitable. Suhaib, according to the tradition, was astounded, for no one had arrived in Madinah before him who could have brought the news. “It must have been Gabriel who told you,” he said to the Prophet. But the same event has been related by Marduya and Ibn Sa’ad. According to them, Suhaib told his own story in these words: “I carried on until I reached Madinah. When the Prophet heard about my handing over my wealth to the Quraysh in return for