''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
Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
'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.
The best known and accepted of these hadith are attributed to
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, cousin and son-in-law to Muhammad.
Another well-known description is attributed to a woman named
Umm Ma'bad
ʿĀtika bint Khālid al-Khuzāʿīyya () nicknamed Umm Maʿbad () is a woman who lived during the time of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. She was from the tribe Khuza'ah. She is noted for providing a physical description of him. According to a book ...
.
Other descriptions are attributed to
Aisha
Aisha ( ar, , translit=ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr; , also , ; ) was Muhammad's third and youngest wife. In Islamic writings, her name is thus often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers" ( ar, links=no, , ʾumm al-mu'min, muʾminīn), ...
Abu Hurairah
Abu Hurayra ( ar, أبو هريرة, translit=Abū Hurayra; –681) was one of the companions of Islamic prophet Muhammad and, according to Sunni Islam, the most prolific narrator of hadith.
He was known by the ''kunyah'' Abu Hurayrah "Fathe ...
and
Hasan ibn Ali
Hasan ibn Ali ( ar, الحسن بن علي, translit=Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī; ) was a prominent early Islamic figure. He was the eldest son of Ali and Fatima and a grandson of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ...
. While ''shama'il'' lists the physical and spiritual characteristics of Muhammad in simple prose, in ''
hilya
The term ''hilya'' (Arabic , plural: ''ḥilan'', ''ḥulan''; tr, hilye, plural: ) denotes both a visual form in Ottoman art and a religious genre of Ottoman Turkish literature, each dealing with the physical description of Muhammad. Hilya liter ...
'' these are written about in a literary style.
Among other descriptive ''Shama'il'' text are the ''Dala'il al-Nubuwwah'' of
Al-Bayhaqi
Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Khusrawjirdī al-Bayhaqī ( ar, أبو بكر أحمد بن حسين بن علي بن موسى الخسروجردي البيهقي, 994–1066), also known as Imām al-Bayhaqī, was born c. ...
, ''Tarih-i Isfahan'' of Abu Naeem Isfahani, ''Al-Wafa bi Fadha'il al-Mustafa'' of
Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Abu 'l-Faras̲h̲ b. al-Jawzī, often referred to as Ibn al-Jawzī (Arabic: ابن الجوزي, ''Ibn al-Jawzī''; ca. 1116 – 16 June 1201) for short, or reverentially as ''Imam Ibn al-Jawzī'' by ...
and ''Al-Shifa'' of
Qadi Ayyad
ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā (1083–1149) ( ar, القاضي عياض بن موسى, formally Abū al-Faḍl ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn ʿAmr ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī ...
are the main shemaa-il and hilya books.
Content of descriptions
The description of Muhammad by
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, according to Tirmidhi, is as follows:
The description attributed by
Umm Ma'bad
ʿĀtika bint Khālid al-Khuzāʿīyya () nicknamed Umm Maʿbad () is a woman who lived during the time of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. She was from the tribe Khuza'ah. She is noted for providing a physical description of him. According to a book ...
goes as follows:
Muhammad's title as the "
Nabi
Nabi may refer to:
People
* Adil Nabi (born 1994), English footballer
*Heiki Nabi (born 1985), Estonian wrestler
*Isadore Nabi, satirical pseudonym of Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, scientists in the 1960s
*Mohammad Nabi (born 1985), Afghan ...
" ( ; i.e. the last of them, as it were the "seal" closing Allah's communication to Nabi) is taken from Hazrat Ali's description,
Between his two shoulders was the seal of Nabouati or prophethood, and he was the seal of the Nabi's or prophets
This "seal of Nabuwwahti or 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
Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued bo ...
''.
It is depicted as a
mole
Mole (or Molé) may refer to:
Animals
* Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America
* Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...
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
''Sunan Abu Dawood'' ( ar-at, سنن أبي داود, Sunan Abī Dāwūd) is one of the ''Kutub al-Sittah'' (six major hadith collections), collected by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (d.889).
Introduction
Abu Dawood compiled twenty-one books related to ...
'' (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
Khasa'il Nabawi
''Khasa'il Nabawi'' ( ur, خصائل نبوی) is an Urdu translation and commentary on the '' Ash-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya''. It was authored by Zakariyya Kandhlawi, who compiled and offered explanations for the narrations found within this boo ...
'' 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) ...
in 1926.
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
The term ''hilya'' (Arabic , plural: ''ḥilan'', ''ḥulan''; tr, hilye, plural: ) denotes both a visual form in Ottoman art and a religious genre of Ottoman Turkish literature, each dealing with the physical description of Muhammad. Hilya liter ...