The Rationalistic-Critical Approach of Orientalists in Seerah Writings: An Exploratory Study of Modern Trends

Abstract

The practice of Seerah composing has prevailed from the classical period of Islamic history, and it has proceeded through the ages, to the contemporary world. With the passage of time developments and different circumstances occurred in the methodology and way of writing on the Seerah as well. Various insightful works to feature the various aspects of the Prophet's (PBUH) life have shown up in the past numerous decades. The reason for composing such sort of works is, principally, to show the significance of the Prophet's life for all occasions, and in conditions. Modern Seerah texts are profoundly impacted by the impressive historical currents that have formed the post-colonial Muslim world. In the 19th century, the Islamic world confronted the Western understanding of science, as it steadily began to go affected by the last option in economic, political, and military perspectives. The examinations done in this period were currently done even with the contributions of the Western perspective. Even though there were a few works, assuming scant managed without concerning the Western techniques for research, some others were composed as criticism of the orientalist studies, and some were delivered affected by the orientalist thoughts. However, in the contemporary era, there have arisen some recent fads in the composing trends of the Seerah. The current paper analyzes the process of internalization, which permitted some writers to create works that peruse feels that they were living in the hour of prophecy as well as targets to display contemporary search trends followed by West and orientalists such as after decolonization and how they affect our Muslim writers.