Al-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya is the most famous collection of narrations (415 hadiths altogether) detailing the beauty and personality of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Commonly referred to as 'The Shama'il', and compiled by the prolific Imam al-Tirmidhi, this perennial masterpiece was arguably the most popular book in the Muslim world for 1000 years; second only to the Quran. This book is a new translation - the best in English - with nearly 1000 footnotes of commentary! Learn more about the book in this 2-minute video. 

Portrait of a Prophet belongs to the traditional genre of Islamic 'sacred history' sources known as seerah (biography). It contains a famous and a most indispensable collection of authentic traditions (ahadith), listing the main texts from which to glean the beautiful attributes, both moral and physical, of the Holy Prophet – Peace and Blessings be upon Him; attributes to which Muslims in all ages referred over and over, for the purposes of both meditation and edification.

At no time is this sacred collection of traditions more needed, as an object of knowledge and as food for thought, than in ours, when the excesses of worldly concerns and the superfluity of material distractions seem to make people forget that the greatest fruit of life, and thus of religious faith, is beauty of soul.

The hadith of the Prophet provide the role model for all Muslims and give an example of how Qur'anic doctrine was actually to be lived in daily life. Therefore this huge corpus of 10 volumes is central.

Here the reader is able to go back 14 centuries and be in the very presence of the Prophet, Peace and Blessings be upon Him, through the authentic recorded sayings transmitted by the recognized transmitter al Tirmidhi who died in 912, some 350 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. This particular collection is of the recorded sayings of the Prophet's contemporaries, regarding his very person and presence, down to the color of his eyes and skin.

In Islam, two sources are used to explain the religion and its laws: the Qur'an, a revered text, and the hadith, the sayings and activities of the Prophet Muhammad as reported by friends and followers during his lifetime. This skilled translation, which includes the Arabic of one of the key Islamic texts, long-awaited in English, presents a fascinating selection of hadith compiled by the ninth-century scholar at-Tirmidhi that humanizes the Prophet for modern audiences, presenting him through the eyes of contemporaries who comment not only on his spiritual demeanor and qualities but also on his physical appearance and mannerisms, including his hairdressing, his sitting posture, his sandals and turban, his armor, his favorite condiments, and his jests and laughter.