شردھے پرکاش دیو کے مطالعۂ سیرت النبی ﷺ میں واقعاتی تسامحات: مسلم دانشوروں کی نگارشات کی روشنی میں تحقیقی و تنقیدی مطالعہ

Narrative Inaccuracies in Shraddha Prakash Deo’s Study of the Prophetic Sirahﷺ: A Critical and Analytical Examination in the Light of Muslim Scholarship

Abstract

In Islamic topics, the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (Seerat Tayyiba ﷺ) is such a vast and profound subject that scholars and writers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, throughout the ages have attempted to contribute to it according to their ability and taste. Perhaps, there is hardly any major language in the world in which there is no written material on the Seerat Tayyiba ﷺ. Similarly, as the most exemplary human being in social and individual life, and in the various aspects of public and private life, the uniqueness and distinctiveness of the Prophet ﷺ is such that hardly any aspect of his life has remained hidden from the eyes of scholars. Consequently, Orientalists, with their various reprehensible agendas, took the Seerat an-Nabi ﷺ as a subject of discussion because the source and foundation of Islamic civilization is precisely the Seerat Tayyiba ﷺ. In this sense, objections to the Seerat ﷺ are essentially objections to Islamic civilization itself. Among these Orientalists, some wrote out of bias and prejudice, while others wrote with neutrality and a genuine pursuit of truth.

In the first half of the 20th century in the Indian subcontinent, Orientalists and non-Muslim intellectuals created doubts and questions about Islam, its civilization and culture, and various aspects of the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, in an attempt to alienate Muslims from their beliefs, civilization, and culture. As a result, Muslim scholars and thinkers provided well-reasoned responses to these objections and clarified the doubts. Like Muslim thinkers, some Hindu intellectuals and writers also sought to convey accurate information about Islam to dispel these misconceptions. Among these non-Muslim thinkers is the name 'Sharda Prakash Deo,' who impartially wrote a book on the life of the Prophet ﷺ and also answered the objections raised regarding Islamic civilization and the Prophet's life ﷺ.