The Secret of Shakespeare: His Greatest Plays Seen in the Light of Sacred Art, Quinta Essentia, Cambridge, 1996. Asma Asfaruddin said the book is a rare example of "a gift of narration wedded to impeccable scholarship". [12]

He recited these words after the Angel, who thereupon left him, and he said: “It was as though the words were written on my heart.”’ But he feared that this might mean he had become a jinn-inspired poet or a man possessed. So he fled from the cave, and when he was halfway down the slope of the mountain he heard a voice above him saying: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” He raised his eyes heavenwards and there was his visitant, still recognizable but now clearly an Angel, filling the whole horizon, and again he said: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” The Prophet stood gazing at the Angel; then he turned away from him, but whichever way he looked the Angel was always there, astride the horizon, whether it was to the north, to the south, to the east or to the west. Finally the Angel turned away, and the Prophet descended the slope and went to his house. Acclaimed worldwide as the definitive biography of the Prophet Muhammad in the English language, Martin Lings'"Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources" is unlike any other. Based on Arabic sources of the eighth and ninth centuries, of which some important passages are translated here for the first time, "Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources" owes the freshness and directness of its approach to the words of men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life.---Martin Lings' gift for narrative, and his adoption of a style which is extremely readable, allows both the simplicity and grandeur of the story to shine through. The result is a book which will be read with equal enjoyment by those already familiar with Muhammad's life and those coming to it for the first time. "Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources" was selected as the best biography of the Prophet in English at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad in 1983. Lings provides a wealth of detail on the life of Muhammad, the time and place of many Koranic revelations, and the foundation of Islam, all based exclusively on 8th- and 9th-century Arabic biographical sources and collections of the sayings attributed to Muhammad. General readers will find a well-written, straightforward chronological narrative; Muslim readers will appreciate the favorable treatment of Muhammad; while specialists will find a faithful and convenient rendering of source material."Martin Lings' biography of Muhammad, unlike any other, is based on Arabic sources of the eighth and ninth centuries (of which some important passages are translated here for the first time). It owes its freshness and directness of approach to the words of the men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life. There is a freshness, clarity and gripping suspense throughout the book… As a text in the how and the why and the when of various revelations—both Koranic and Prophetic traditions—it is enlightening and authoritative… Our author’s familiarity with all the complicated inter-family links of tribal Arabia gives us the certainty that he knows his material thoroughly… This work should be translated into Arabic so that the whole Arab world may drink from it.’ From then on, he wrote constantly. For Muslims, his masterpiece was Muhammad: His Life Based On The Earliest Sources (1983), for which he was decorated by Zia al-Haq, then president of Pakistan.

Khalid Yahya writes that Lings' book brings early Islamic accounts, many of which are scattered, into a single narrative according to Ibn Ishaq's chronological scheme. According to Yahya, Lings successfully presents what most Muslims believe, and have believed throughout history, about Muhammad. [10] W. Montgomery Watt agrees that Lings' book gives an idea of how Muhammad is seen by Muslims. He points out that the book was based on the earliest Islamic sources, and where there is a difference of opinion in those sources, the book takes the most widely accepted view; and that Lings simply accepts the early Islamic sources without discussing their value. [11] Lings was born in Burnage, Manchester, in 1909 to a Protestant family. [2] The young Lings gained an introduction to travelling at a young age, spending significant time in the United States because of his father's employment. Lings attended Clifton College [3] and went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a BA in English Language and Literature. At Magdalen, he was a student and then a close friend of C. S. Lewis. After graduating from Oxford Lings went to Vytautas Magnus University, in Lithuania, where he taught Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. [2]Martin Lings (24 January 1909 – 12 May 2005), also known as Abū Bakr Sirāj ad-Dīn, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon [1] and an authority on the work of William Shakespeare, he is best known as the author of Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, first published in 1983 and still in print.

The word seerah linguistically means a path. In referring to a person’s life, it refers to the path they have traversed. The seerah of the Prophet ﷺ is its own genre of literature: a realm of study with principles, codification, and systems. It encompasses all of that which is associated with the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ. Within seerah literature, there are different sub-genres, including the shama’il (collection of Hadiths about the appearance, mannerisms, belongings, etc. of the Prophet ﷺ), wives of the Prophet ﷺ, comparative literature looking at the Mecca and Medina years, military expeditions, and much more. The Spectator described the book as "an enthralling story that combines impeccable scholarship with a rare sense of the sacred worthy of his subject." The Islamic Quarterly called the book "a true work of art, as enthralling as the best novels with the difference that this is not fiction but fact." [8] The Times said "this work is widely recognized as the most readable account of the life of the Prophet to date." [4] Parabola stated that "for those interested in Islam in one way or another, it is mesmerizing." [9]The late Dr Martin Lings, formerly Keeper of Oriental Manuscript in the British Museum and the British Library, is the author of three works on Islamic mysticism, A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century, What is Sufism?, The Book of Certainty, all published by the Islamic Texts Society. Garuda itu boleh jadi siapapun yang telah melampaui perjuangan berat untuk generasinya, namun nilai-nilai ajarannya terlupakan oleh generasi yang diperjuangkannya. Muhammad yang oleh Hart diletakkan sebagai manusia paling berpengaruh sepanjang sejarah peradaban, seringkali hanya dikenal namanya oleh generasi Muslim saat ini. Berapa besar generasi Muslim masa kini yang memahami masa kanak-kanak dan remaja Muhammad? Berapa besar generasi Muslim masa kini yang paham sosiologi masyarakat bertumbuhnya Sang Nabi? Berapa besar generasi masa kini yang mampu menghayati ajaran cintanya di tengah kecaman dan boikot kaumnya sendiri? Boleh jadi, Muhammad bagi generasi masa kini adalah “Garuda” yang dijunjung tanpa cinta, dibacakan shalawat oleh lisan namun tanpa hati, dijadikan legitimasi oleh kehausan akan kekuasaan. Dijadikan hiasan maya, bukan oleh siapa-siapa, tapi umatnya sendiri, yang atas nama Muhammad mereka menebar kebencian. Dipuja tapi dihina, dipuja oleh lisan mereka, disanjung oleh motif industri, dinyanyikan dalam pita-pita rekaman, namun diamdiam dalam hati, mereka mengeluh karena merasa berat menjalankan apa yang diwasiatkan. Muhammad, nama yang tak akan pernah lekang dalam labirin zaman. Meski gelombang sejarah terus bergemuruh melempar dan meninggalkan buihnya, nama itu adalah karang yang tak tergoyahkan. Ribuan karya tak akan mampu menampung keagungan karakternya, insan pilihan sepanjang zaman. Sebagai fisik manusia, ia telah hidup lima belas abad yang lalu di sebuah jazirah, sebagai energi dan ruh, ia tak pernah mati, dan tak akan pernah. Manusia intan, begitu sebagian umatnya menyebut namanya. Meskipun intan, ia menyatukan dirinya bersama kerikil-kerikil. Menjadi pendamping mereka yang dipinggirkan oleh arus kekuasaan setiap zaman. Bagai sebuah syi’ir di mushola kecil sebuah desa: Muhammadun Basyarun Laisa Kal Basyari Kanjeng Nabi Muhammad Iku manungso, nanging ora koyo lumrahe