Man needs a perfect and universal exemplar that could place in his hands a guide-book of practical life, so that every wayfarer may reach his destination safely. And this exemplar did come to the world in the person of the last of the Prophets. Muhammad, on whom be peace and blessing of the Lord. This book took shape from a series of lectures given by the author in 1925 at Madras, India. In these lectures the author vividly presents the life of the Prophet as an abiding historical model-not a utopian ideal-for all humanity. This book is a must for every student of religion.

The late Sayyed Sulaiman Nadwi was an eminent scholar of his time who had, owing to his deep and wide knowledge and earnest zeal for religion, made his place in the line of great savants of Islam. The present work, which he himself considered to be his best, is a quintessence of his Sirat-un-Nabi, the great work of encyclopedic sweep which would have done honor to any academy rather than to an individual scholar. The author discusses in it the winsome qualities necessary for any founder of a religion if the way of life taught by him is to attract and inspire the people. The author goes on further to show how, of all the founders of religions, the accounts of the life of and character of Muhammad alone are verifiable by methodical records of history; how his teachings are comprehensive enough to brighten the path of all men in varied situations and exigencies of human life; how they provide guidance to all, the ruler and the ruled, the rich and poor, the military genius and the administrator and the businessman and the cultivator. The author's account also establishes, beyond any doubt, that Muhammad alone was the symbol of perfection, a paradigm of virtuous and wholesome behavior whose examples and teachings have lightened the path of humanity for all time to come.