With respect to the lineage of
Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), there are three versions: The first was
authenticated by biographers and genealogists and states that Muhammad’s
genealogy has been traced to ‘Adnan. The second is subject to controversies and
doubt, and traces his lineage beyond ‘Adnan back to Abraham. The third version,
with some parts definitely incorrect, traces his lineage beyond Abraham back to
Adam (Peace be upon him).
After this rapid review, now ample
details are believed to be necessary.
The first part: Muhammad
bin ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abdul-Muttalib (who was called Shaiba) bin Hashim, (named
‘Amr) bin ‘Abd Munaf (called Al-Mugheera) bin Qusai (also called Zaid) bin
Kilab bin Murra bin Ka‘b bin Lo’i bin Ghalib bin Fahr (who was called Quraish
and whose tribe was called after him) bin Malik bin An-Nadr (so called Qais)
bin Kinana bin Khuzaiman bin Mudrikah (who was called ‘Amir) bin Elias bin
Mudar bin Nizar bin Ma‘ad bin ‘Adnan.
The second part:
‘Adnan bin Add bin Humaisi‘ bin Salaman bin Aws bin Buz bin Qamwal bin Obai bin
‘Awwam bin Nashid bin Haza bin Bildas bin Yadlaf bin Tabikh bin Jahim bin
Nahish bin Makhi bin Aid bin ‘Abqar bin ‘Ubaid bin Ad-Da‘a bin Hamdan bin
Sanbir bin Yathrabi bin Yahzin bin Yalhan bin Ar‘awi bin Aid bin Deshan bin
Aisar bin Afnad bin Aiham bin Muksar bin Nahith bin Zarih bin Sami bin Mazzi
bin ‘Awda bin Aram bin Qaidar bin Ishmael son of Abraham (Peace be upon them).
The third part:
beyond Abraham (Peace be upon him) , Ibn Tarih (Azar) bin Nahur bin Saru‘ bin
Ra‘u bin Falikh bin Abir bin Shalikh bin Arfakhshad bin Sam bin Noah (Peace be
upon him) , bin Lamik bin Mutwashlack bin Akhnukh [who was said to be Prophet
Idris (Enoch) (Peace be upon him) bin Yarid bin Mahla’il bin Qabin Anusha bin
Shith bin Adam (Peace be upon him)
The family of Prophet Muhammad (Peace
be upon him) is called the Hashimite family after his grandfather Hashim bin
‘Abd Munaf. Let us now speak a little about Hashim and his descendants:
1. Hashim:
As we have previously mentioned, he was the one
responsible for giving food and water to the pilgrims. This had been his charge
when the sons of ‘Abd Munaf and those of ‘Abd Ad-Dar compromised on dividing
the charges between them. Hashim was wealthy and honest. He was the first to
offer the pilgrims sopped bread in broth. His first name was ‘Amr but he was
called Hashim because he had been in the practice of crumbling bread (for the
pilgrims). He was also the first man who started Quraish’s two journeys of
summer and winter. It was reported that he went to Syria as a merchant. In
Madinah, he married Salma — the daughter of ‘Amr from Bani ‘Adi bin An-Najjar.
He spent some time with her in Madinah then he left for Syria again while she was
pregnant. He died in Ghazza in Palestine in 497 A.D. Later, his wife gave birth
to ‘Abdul-Muttalib and named him Shaiba for the white hair in his head , and
brought him up in her father’s house in Madinah. None of his family in Makkah
learned of his birth. Hashim had four sons; Asad, Abu Saifi, Nadla and
‘Abdul-Muttalib, and five daughters Ash-Shifa, Khalida, Da‘ifa, Ruqyah and
Jannah.
2. ‘Abdul-Muttalib:
We have already known that after the death of Hashim, the charge of pilgrims’
food and water went to his brother Al-Muttalib bin ‘Abd Munaf (who was honest,
generous and trustworthy). When ‘Abdul-Muttalib reached the age of boyhood, his
uncle Al-Muttalib heard of him and went to Madinah to fetch him. When he saw
him, tears filled his eyes and rolled down his cheeks, he embraced him and took
him on his camel. The boy, however abstained from going with him to Makkah
until he took his mother’s consent. Al-Muttalib asked her to send the boy with
him to Makkah, but she refused. He managed to convince her saying: “Your son is
going to Makkah to restore his father’s authority, and to live in the vicinity
of the Sacred House.” There in Makkah, people wondered at seeing
Abdul-Muttalib, and they considered him the slave of Muttalib. Al-Muttalib
said: “He is my nephew, the son of my brother Hashim.” The boy was brought up
in Al-Muttalib’s house, but later on Al-Muttalib died in Bardman in Yemen so
‘Abdul-Muttalib took over and managed to maintain his people’s prestige and
outdo his grandfathers in his honourable behaviour which gained him Makkah’s
deep love and high esteem.
3. When
Al-Muttalib died, Nawfal usurped ‘Abdul-Muttalib of
his charges, so the latter asked for help from Quraish but they abstained from
extending any sort of support to either of them. Consequently, he wrote to his
uncles of Bani An-Najjar (his mother’s brothers) to come to his aid. His uncle,
Abu Sa‘d bin ‘Adi (his mother’s brother) marched to Makkah at the head of
eighty horsemen and camped in Abtah in Makkah. ‘Abdul-Muttalib received the men
and invited them to go to his house but Abu Sa‘d said: “Not before I meet
Nawfal.” He found Nawfal sitting with some old men of Quraish in the shade of
Al-Ka‘bah. Abu Sa‘d drew his sword and said: “I swear by Allâh that if you
don’t restore to my nephew what you have taken, I will kill you with this
sword.” Nawfal was thus forced to give up what he had usurped, and the notables
of Quraish were made to witness to his words. Abu Sa‘d then went to
‘Abdul-Muttalib’s house where he stayed for three nights, made ‘Umra and left
back for Madinah. Later on, Nawfal entered into alliance with Bani ‘Abd Shams
bin ‘Abd Munaf against Bani Hashim. When Khuza‘a, a tribe, saw Bani An-Najjar’s
support to ‘Abdul-Muttalib they said: “He is our son as he is yours. We have
more reasons to support him than you.” ‘Abd Munaf’s mother was one of them.
They went into An-Nadwa House and entered into alliance with Bani Hashim
against Bani ‘Abd Shams and Nawfal. It was an alliance that was later to
constitute the main reason for the conquest of Makkah. ‘Abdul-Muttalib
witnessed two important events in his lifetime, namely digging Zamzam well and
the Elephant raid.
In brief, ‘Abdul-Muttalib received an
order in his dream to dig Zamzam well in a particular place. He did that and
found the things that Jurhum men had buried therein when they were forced to
evacuate Makkah. He found the swords, armours and the two deer of gold. The
gate of Al-Ka‘bah was stamped from the gold swords and the two deer and then
the tradition of providing Zamzam water to pilgrims was established.
When the well of Zamzam gushed water
forth, Quraish made a claim to partnership in the enterprise, but
‘Abdul-Muttalib refused their demands on grounds that Allâh had singled only
him out for this honourable job. To settle the dispute, they agreed to consult
Bani Sa‘d’s diviner. On their way, Allâh showed them His Signs that confirmed
‘Abdul-Muttalib’s prerogative as regards the sacred spring. Only then did
‘Abdul-Muttalib make a solemn vow to sacrifice one of his adult children to
Al-Ka‘bah if he had ten.
The second event was that of Abraha
As-Sabah Al-Habashi, the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) viceroy in Yemen. He had seen
that the Arabs made their pilgrimage to Al-Ka‘bah so he built a large church in
San‘a in order to attract the Arab pilgrims to it to the exclusion of Makkah. A
man from Kinana tribe understood this move, therefore he entered the church
stealthily at night and besmeared its front wall with excrement. When Abraha
knew of that, he got very angry and led a great army – of sixty thousand
warriors – to demolish Al-Ka‘bah. He chose the biggest elephant for himself.
His army included nine or thirteen elephants. He continued marching until he
reached a place called Al-Magmas. There, he mobilized his army, prepared his
elephants and got ready to enter Makkah. When he reached Muhassar Valley,
between Muzdalifah and Mina, the elephant knelt down and refused to go forward.
Whenever they directed it northwards, southwards or eastwards, the elephant
moved quickly but when directed westwards towards Al-Ka‘bah, it knelt down.
Meanwhile, Allâh loosed upon them birds in flights, hurling against them stones
of baked clay and made them like green blades devoured. These birds were very
much like swallows and sparrows, each carrying three stones; one in its peak
and two in its claws. The stones hit Abraha’s men and cut their limbs and
killed them. A large number of Abraha’s soldiers were killed in this way and
the others fled at random and died everywhere. Abraha himself had an infection
that had his fingertips amputated. When he reached San‘a he was in a miserable
state and died soon after.
The Quraishites on their part had
fled for their lives to the hillocks and mountain tops. When the enemy had been
thus routed, they returned home safely.
The Event of the Elephant took place
in the month of Al-Muharram, fifty or fifty five days before the birth of
Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) which corresponded to late February or
early March 571 A.D. It was a gift from Allâh to His Prophet and his family. It
could actually be regarded as a Divine auspicious precursor of the light to
come and accompany the advent of the Prophet and his family. By contrast,
Jerusalem had suffered under the yoke of the atrocities of Allâh’s enemies.
Here we can recall Bukhtanassar in B.C. 587 and the Romans in 70 A.D.
Al-Ka‘bah, by Divine Grace, never came under the hold of the Christians – the
Muslims of that time – although Makkah was populated by polytheists.
News of the Elephant Event reached
the most distant corners of the then civilized world. Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
maintained strong ties with the Romans, while the Persians on the other hand,
were on the vigil with respect to any strategic changes that were looming on
the socio-political horizon, and soon came to occupy Yemen. Incidentally, the
Roman and Persian Empires stood for the powerful civilized world at that time.
The Elephant Raid Event riveted the world’s attention to the sacredness of
Allâh’s House, and showed that this House had been chosen by Allâh for its ho.
It followed then if any of its people claimed Prophethood, it would be
congruous with the outcome of the Elephant Event, and would provide a
justifiable explanation for the ulterior Divine Wisdom that lay behind backing
polytheists against Christians in a manner that transcended the
cause-and-effect formula.
‘Abdul-Muttalib had ten sons,
Al-Harith, Az-Zubair, Abu Talib, ‘Abdullah, Hamzah, Abu Lahab, Ghidaq, Maqwam,
Safar and Al-‘Abbas. He also had six daughters, who were Umm Al-Hakim – the only
white one, Barrah, ‘Atikah, Safiya, Arwa and Omaima.
4. ‘Abdullah: The father of
Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). His mother was Fatimah, daughter of ‘Amr
bin ‘A’idh bin ‘Imran bin Makhzum bin Yaqdha bin Murra. ‘Abdullah was the
smartest of ‘Abdul-Muttalib’s sons, the chastest and the most loved. He was
also the son whom the divination arrows pointed at to be slaughtered as a
sacrifice to Al-Ka‘bah. When ‘Abdul-Muttalib had ten sons and they reached
maturity, he divulged to them his secret vow in which they silently and
obediently acquiesced. Their names were written on divination arrows and given
to the guardian of their most beloved goddess, Hubal. The arrows were shuffled
and drawn. An arrow showed that it was ‘Abdullah to be sacrificed. ‘Abdul-Muttalib
then took the boy to Al-Ka‘bah with a razor to slaughter the boy. Quraish, his
uncles from Makhzum tribe and his brother Abu Talib, however, tried to dissuade
him from consummating his purpose. He then sought their advice as regards his
vow. They suggested that he summon a she-diviner to judge whereabout. She
ordered that the divination arrows should be drawn with respect to ‘Abdullah as
well as ten camels. She added that drawing the lots should be repeated with ten
more camels every time the arrow showed ‘Abdullah. The operation was thus
repeated until the number of the camels amounted to one hundred. At this point
the arrow showed the camels, consequently they were all slaughtered (to the
satisfaction of Hubal) instead of his son. The slaughtered camels were left for
anyone to eat from, human or animal.
This incident produced a change in
the amount of blood-money usually accepted in Arabia. It had been ten camels,
but after this event it was increased to a hundred. Islam, later on, approved of
this. Another thing closely relevant to the above issue goes to the effect that
the Prophet (Peace be upon him) once said:
“I am the offspring of the
slaughtered two,” meaning Ishmael and ‘Abdullah.
‘Abdul-Muttalib chose Amina, daughter
of Wahab bin ‘Abd Munaf bin Zahra bin Kilab, as a wife for his son, ‘Abdullah.
She thus, in the light of this ancestral lineage, stood eminent in respect of
nobility of position and descent. Her father was the chief of Bani Zahra to
whom great honour was attributed. They were married in Makkah, and soon after
‘Abdullah was sent by his father to buy dates in Madinah where he died. In
another version, ‘Abdullah went to Syria on a trade journey and died in Madinah
on his way back. He was buried in the house of An-Nabigha Al-Ju‘di. He was
twenty-five years old when he died. Most historians state that his death was
two months before the birth of Muhammad Õáì Çááå Úáíå æÓáã . Some others said
that his death was two months after the Prophet’s birth. When Amina was
informed of her husband’s death, she celebrated his memory in a most
heart-touching elegy.
