Epigraph

لَّقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِّمَن كَانَ يَرْجُو اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا

The Messenger of God is an excellent model for those of you who put your hope in God and the Last Day and remember Him often. (Al Quran 33:21)

Presented by Zia H Shah MD

Background of the Authors

Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (1893–1985): Zafrulla Khan was a Pakistani statesman, diplomat, and international jurist britannica.combritannica.com. He served as Pakistan’s first Foreign Minister and later as President of the UN General Assembly (1962–63) britannica.com. An adherent of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, he was a prolific writer on Islam. His book Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets (first published 1980) is a biographical account of the Prophet Muhammad intended for a Muslim audience, emphasizing the Prophet’s exemplary life. Zafrulla Khan’s approach is reverential, and he often quotes from classical Islamic sources – as well as, notably, Sir William Muir – to present the Prophet’s life.

Sir William Muir (1819–1905): William Muir was a Scottish Orientalist, colonial administrator in British India, and an Islamic scholar en.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org. He is best known for his four-volume Life of Mahomet (originally published 1858–1861), a pioneering English biography of Prophet Muhammad based on primary Arabic sources en.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org. Muir’s biography is detailed and heavily annotated, though written from a Victorian Christian perspective that at times shows a critical or polemical tone toward Islam en.wikipedia.org. Despite its biases, Muir’s work remained influential in Western scholarship. Zafrulla Khan’s own biography appears to have drawn extensively from Muir’s narrative and even verbatim text, as shown below.

Chapter-by-Chapter Comparative Analysis

Below, we follow the chapter structure of Muir’s Life of Mohammad (Vol. I–IV) and compare each with corresponding content (if any) in Zafrulla Khan’s Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets. For each chapter, we identify passages where Zafrulla Khan’s text closely parallels or directly copies Muir’s work, present them side-by-side, and estimate the percentage of overlap (by content volume) between the two works for that chapter. If a Muir chapter has essentially no counterpart in Zafrulla’s book, we note it accordingly.

Chapter I – Original Sources for the Biography of Muhammad (Muir)

Overlap: 0% (No corresponding chapter in Zafrulla Khan’s book)

Muir opens his biography with a lengthy scholarly discussion of the original source materials on Muhammad’s life (Quran, hadith, early biographies, etc.) medium.com. Zafrulla Khan’s book does not include a dedicated chapter on source criticism. There is no parallel section in Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets analyzing original sources; Zafrulla’s narrative instead begins with general remarks on the significance of Muhammad and the condition of the world before his advent. Therefore, Muir’s Chapter I has no matching content in Zafrulla Khan’s work.

Chapter II – Pre-Islamic Arabia and Ancestry of Muhammad (Muir)

Overlap: ~50% (Zafrulla Khan reproduces many historical details from Muir’s pre-Islamic background chapters)

Muir’s second chapter (and parts of Vol. I) describes Arabia’s religious and social conditions before Islam, and the Prophet’s genealogy and clan history medium.commedium.com. Zafrulla Khan’s Introduction chapter covers similar pre-Islamic history. He clearly utilizes Muir’s narrative of Meccan history and the Prophet’s ancestors. For example, Zafrulla’s account of the Quraysh chief Qusai and the custody of the Ka’aba closely follows Muir. He describes how Qusai defeated the Khuza’a tribe and established Quraysh control over Mecca, even mentioning reforms like the rifada tax and the intercalation of the calendar alislam.org alislam.org – details that come straight from Muir (often in identical wording).

One striking case is Zafrulla’s retelling of Abraha’s invasion of Mecca (circa 570 CE, the “Year of the Elephant”). Muir vividly narrated how Abraha, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen, marched on Mecca with an elephant, only to be miraculously defeated medium.com. Zafrulla Khan’s book includes the same episode, reproducing Muir’s description almost verbatim, as seen below:

Muir’s Life of Mohammad (Vol. I)	Zafrulla Khan’s Seal of the Prophets
“‘Abraha,’ the message ran, ‘had no desire to do them injury. His only object was to demolish the Ka‘ba; that performed, he would retire without shedding the blood of any man.’ The citizens had already resolved that it would be vain to oppose the invader by force of arms…” (Muir, Life of Mahomet, Vol. I, p. 117)	“Abraha sent an embassy to Mecca carrying the message that he had no desire to do them injury. His only object was to demolish the Ka’aba; that done, he would retire without shedding the blood of any man. The citizens of Mecca had already resolved that it would be vain to oppose the invader by force…”

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