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Provenance · book-level ledger

Israelite Prophets to Pre-Islamic Arabia

Volume Two narrates the longest historical arc in the work: the Israelite prophetic line after Mūsā — Hizqil, Ṭālūt and Jālūt, Dāwūd and the Zabūr, the unparalleled kingdom of Sulaymān — through Luqmān, the people of the Cave and the Ditch, the kings of Yemen and Damascus, and the long approach to the Quraysh, ending at the doorstep of the birth of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ.

01 · Original author

Imam Ibn Kathīr

Abū al-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī (أبو الفداء إسماعيل بن عمر بن كثير الدمشقي)
14th century · 1300–1373 CE / 701–774 AH · Bosra, Syria
Shāfiʿī

Monumental history Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah, the world's most widely read Qurʾanic commentary, and the classical Stories of the Prophets.

Full biography → · Wikipedia ↗

02 · Original Arabic manuscript

al-Maktaba al-Shāmila

Source: shamela.ws · cross-checked against a printed critical edition before translation

The Arabic text we work from matches al-Maktaba al-Shāmila verbatim — the most comprehensive digital library of classical Arabic-Islamic scholarship, used by academic researchers and traditional ʿulamāʾ alike. The original Arabic will be published in BookKit (launching in a future release).

The author is deceased well before 1924, placing the original work firmly in the public domain worldwide. The translation that follows is an original editorial work of Joyful Muslims.

03 · English translation

Joyful Muslims editorial team

Translated in-house from the Arabic manuscript. Each chapter passes through at least two reviewers — one focused on accuracy against the Arabic, one on English readability. Where the two are in tension, accuracy wins.

The full, unabridged English translation will be published alongside the Arabic in BookKit, launching in a future release. The audiobook adaptation — same translation, adjusted for listening — is what plays in the app today.

Read the translation method →

04 · Narration

Narrated with care

Running time: 18h 22m · language: English · format: audio/mp4

The narration observes Islamic textual traditions — the pronunciation of Arabic names, the correct honorifics (ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam, raḍiya Allāhu ʿanh), and the weight each passage should carry. Every word is aligned to the source text so readers in the app can follow along word by word.

05 · Publisher of record

Joyful Muslims

EMV-registered · CVR 46387996 · Denmark
Governing law: Danish law

Every subscription funds the continued translation, narration, and free release of new canonical works into the library. Audio is the vessel; preservation is the purpose.

Read the mission → · Legal imprint →

Hear it

Listen to Israelite Prophets to Pre-Islamic Arabia

The first three minutes are free on the web. The full book opens in the app.

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More volumes in this collection

Other books in Al-Bidāya wal-Nihāya

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