Who is the Christian-turned-Muslim writer of the biography Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources?

Explanation

Martin Lings (1909–2005) was a British scholar who converted to Islam and took the name Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din. His book Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, published in 1983, is widely regarded as one of the most beautifully written and authentic biographies of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the English language, drawing primarily from classical Arabic sources like Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham. It received acclaim even in the Muslim world and won the National Seerah Award from the Government of Pakistan.

Good to know

Martin Lings was a student of C.S. Lewis at Oxford and later became the keeper of Oriental manuscripts at the British Museum. His conversion to Islam was influenced by the French metaphysician René Guénon and the Swiss scholar Frithjof Schuon. The biography is noted for its literary elegance and strict reliance on the earliest available sources, avoiding later embellishments. Other notable works by Lings include A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century and What is Sufism?.

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