''ash-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya'' () is a
collection of hadiths compiled by the 9th-century scholar
al-Tirmidhi regarding the intricate details of the
Islamic prophet Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...
's life including his appearance, his belongings, his manners, and much more. The book contains 399 narrations from the successors of Muhammad which are divided into 56 chapters.
[ibn Isa (2011)]
The best known and accepted of these hadith are attributed to
Ali, cousin and son-in-law to Muhammad.
Another well-known description is attributed to a woman named
Umm Ma'bad.
Other descriptions are attributed to
Aisha,
`Abd Allah ibn `Abbas,
Abu Hurairah and
Hasan ibn Ali. While ''shama'il'' lists the physical and spiritual characteristics of Muhammad in simple prose, in ''
hilya'' these are written about in a literary style.
Among other descriptive ''Shama'il'' text are the ''Dala'il al-Nubuwwah'' of
Al-Bayhaqi, ''Tarih-i Isfahan'' of Abu Naeem Isfahani, ''Al-Wafa bi Fadha'il al-Mustafa'' of
Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi and ''Al-Shifa'' of
Qadi Ayyad are the main shemaa-il and hilya books.
Content of descriptions
The description of Muhammad by Ali, according to Tirmidhi, is as follows:
The description attributed by Umm Ma'bad goes as follows:
Muhammad's title as the "
seal of the prophets" ( ; i.e. the last of them, as it were the "seal" closing God's communication to man) is taken from Ali's description,
Between his two shoulders was the seal of prophethood, and he was the seal of the prophets
This "seal of prophethood" ( ) between Muhammad's shoulders is given a closer description in other texts of the hadith, and it is given a dedicated discussion in ''
Sahih Muslim''.
It is depicted as a
mole on the end of his left shoulder blade, in size compared to a pigeon's egg or an apple. A passage from ''
Sunan Abu Dawood'' (32.4071), also collected in the ''Shama'il'', reports how one Qurrah ibn Iyas al-Muzani on the occasion of swearing allegiance to Muhammad put his hand inside his shirt to "feel the seal".
Translations and Editions
The Shama'il is generally printed as an appendix to the
Jami' of Tirmidhi in India and Pakistan. Professor M.H.F. Quraishi translated the Shama'il of Tirmidhi into English, which was published in 1980 in India.
An
translation and commentary, ''Khasa'il-i Nabawi'' was written by
Muhammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi
Muḥammad Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad Yaḥyá Ṣiddīqī Kāndhlawī Sahāranpūrī Muhājir Madanī (''Muḥammad Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad Yaḥyá aṣ-Ṣiddīqī al-Kāndahlawī as-Sahāranfūrī al-Madanī''; 2 February 189824 May 1982) ...
.
An English translation and commentary, "A Commentary on the Depiction of Prophet Muhammad" was published in 2015.
An Uzbek translation and commentary, "Shamoili Muhammadiya" by Ziyovuddin Rahim was published in 2020.
See also
*
Hilya
References
*
External links
Shama'il Muhammadiyah online at Sunnah.com- English translation with Arabic chapters
{{Depictions of Muhammad
Hadith collections
Cultural depictions of Muhammad
Sunni hadith collections