A Constructive Critique of Martin Lings’s Seera
by britishmisk
A few years ago I read the biography of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) by Martin Lings. I was taken in by his eloquent use of language and immense writing style that really brought out the true beauty of the life of the beloved of God.
But as I read it, there were a couple of minor things that stood out as being quite strange. Apparently Salafis have a negative view of his seera (But then again what do they have a positive view about) and recommend that it should be avoided. I didn’t bother looking into their reasons for their thinking as I knew I would just end up wasting my time.
But today I came across an article by a great Islamic scholar of our time, Sheikh Gibril Haddad. Before he became Muslim, “Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources” by Martin Lings was one of the books he read that inspired him to convert from Christianity to Islam.
Now that he is a scholar in his own right, he is able to pick out the minor issues that are presented in Lings’ work, so that Muslims who approach it can do so with a sound knowledge of the criticisms leveled against it.
I should mention however that his seera still stands as one of the most remarkable achievements of Islamic English literature, and I would recommend it to everyone to read. But I would also ask that you read Sheikh Haddad’s article also, preferably before embarking on this journey of literary brilliance.
Now I just need to read Aisha Bewley’s translation of Qadi Iyad’s Shifa’a…
Britishmisk's Blog 
This is a wonderful book and certainly the best book on Islam that I have read. It was really moving and somehow conveyed the spirit of the Prophet’s life, making him an actually present person in my mind, at least for the duration that I was reading the book.
I am told Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled The Life of the Prophet Muhammad uses Dr Lings’ text as a starting point while still pointing out its shortcomings. His obituary of Martin Lings from Q-News is also an excellent read. https://thinkthink.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/a-spiritual-giant-in-an-age-of-dwarfed-terrestrial-aspirations.pdf
Ironically that’s what led me to update this post as Shaykh Hamza mentions some of the problems of the book in his series of lectures. The whole thing is available on YouTube.