Seerah – Part 2
(March 19, 2021)
الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين
Background History and Lineage of Prophet (S)
In the last session, we talked about the importance of studying the seerah and today inshaAllah, we will start with the seerah itself. However, when we look into the works of scholars done on the seerah, we notice that the seerah does not start by talking about the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (S), but goes back in time to his ancestry starting from Ibrahim (AS). The Prophet’s genealogy has been traced to Isma’il (AS) – the eldest son of Ibrahim (AS).
In obedience to Allah’s command, Ibrahim travelled with his wife Hajar and his new born son – Isma’il from Palestine to Arabia, in the land of Hijaz into Makkah. This was over 4,000 years ago. They traveled for many days until finally they reached the dry and parched valley of Bacca later to be called Makkah.
Leaving them with some water and dates, Ibrahim walked away. Hajar knew that Ibrahim was going to leave them, but she did not expect to be left in such a place, in the middle of the desert. So following him, she said to him, “Ibrahim, are you going to leave us in a place where there is no cultivation and there is no one living?” Ibrahim did not answer back. She asked him again, but there was no response. She asked him a third time, and still Ibrahim did not answer back. And then Hajar said, “Did Allah tell you to do so?” Ibrahim said, “Yes.” She said, “Then Allah will take care of us.” Ibrahim left them there knowing that Allah would take care of them. While leaving them, he made dua to Allah with these words:
رَبَّنَا إِنِّي أَسْكَنْتُ مِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِي بِوَادٍ غَيْرِ ذِي زَرْعٍ عِنْدَ بَيْتِكَ الْمُحَرَّمِ رَبَّنَا لِيُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ فَاجْعَلْ أَفْئِدَةً مِنَ النَّاسِ تَهْوِي إِلَيْهِمْ وَارْزُقْهُمْ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَشْكُرُونَ
“Our Lord! I have settled some of my offspring in an uncultivated valley near Your Sacred House, our Lord, so that they may establish prayers. So, make people’s hearts incline towards them and provide them with fruits so that they may be grateful.” (Ibrahim, 14:37)
Soon all the water was gone. The child began to grow weak from thirst. There were two hills nearby, one called Safa and the other Marwah. Hagar went up one hill and looked into the distance to see if she could find any water, but found none. So she went to the other hill and did the same. She did this seven times. Then sadly she returned to her son, and to her great surprise and joy she found a spring of water bubbling out of the earth near him. This spring, near which the mother and child settled, was later called Zamzam
In the desert whenever you have a source of water, it will immediately attract forms of life, so birds were beginning to hover over the pool containing the water. This pool or well came to be known as Zamzam. There was a tribe called Jurham who were nomads and who had moved out of Yemen and went into Hijaz. Yemen was the birthplace of the Arab people and the Arabic language, and that is where the Arab tribes emigrated from. There were waves of immigrations that took place from Yemen in different times. Jurham was familiar with the area around Makkah and they knew there was no water in that area, so when they saw birds hovering in the sky, they wondered what was going on in that particular area, so they sent some of their men to go and investigate the matter.
The men came back and reported that there was a well in that area. So people from the Jurham tribe went to the place where Zamzam was located and asked Hajar a strange question and they got an even stranger answer. They asked Hajar, “Can we settle in this place?” Now, the reason why this question is strange is because this is a tribe of nomads, and here they were getting permission from a lonely woman with her child. If they wanted, they could have just pushed her away, but they were very kind to ask her for permission to stay there. And her answer was even more amazing because she started to bargain and negotiate with them.
Here you have a woman who is alone with no power and no strength, and no one to help her, and she is negotiating and bargaining with them and telling them: “Well, if you want to stay then I have a condition, and that is that the water belongs to us. The well belongs to us.” They agreed. And they ended up settling in that area which later became known as Makkah. The Prophet (S) is reported to have said, “Deep in her heart she wanted them to stay from the beginning, because she wanted to have company,”
Isma‘il grew up with the people of the Jurham tribe and he adopted their language. He learned their language which was Arabic. What was the language of Ibrahim? It was Aramaic. Ibrahim was from ‘Iraq and they used to speak the Aramaic language in Iraq at that time. So Isma‘il was brought up by this Arab tribe and he adopted their language and he married a woman from among them. So this is the beginning of the lineage of Prophet (S), through Isma‘il in Makkah.
From time to time Ibrahim traveled from Palestine to visit his family and he saw Isma’il grow into a strong young man. It was during one of these visits that Allah commanded them to rebuild the Ka’bah. Ibrahim and Isma’il worked hard to rebuild the Ka’bah and as they did so they prayed to Allah to send a Prophet from among their descendants.
رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ () رَبَّنَا وَاجْعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ وَمِنْ ذُرِّيَّتِنَا أُمَّةً مُسْلِمَةً لَكَ وَأَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا وَتُبْ عَلَيْنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ () رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آَيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
“Our Lord, accept it from us, You are the Hearer, the Knower. Our Lord, and make us submissive to You, and from our descendants a community submissive to You. And show us our rites, and accept our repentance. You are the Acceptor of Repentance, the Merciful. Our Lord, and raise up among them a messenger, from themselves, who will recite to them Your revelations, and teach them the Book and wisdom, and purify them. You are the Almighty, the Wise.” (al-Baqarah, 2:127-129)
When the Ka’bah was completed, Allah commanded Ibrahim to call mankind to pilgrimage to His Holy House. Ibrahim wondered how anyone could hear his call. Allah said, ‘You call and I will bring them.’ This was how the pilgrimage to the Ka’bah in Makkah was established and when Muslims make the pilgrimage today they continue to answer the age-old call of Ibrahim.
While the Jurham had the political leadership in Makkah, the religious leadership in Makkah was with Isma‘il, and it continued down along the line of his descendants. So Jurham never had the religious authority over the Ka’bah. It was always in the hands of the descendants of Isma‘il.
Jurham stayed in Makkah for a very long time – about two thousand years. With the passage of time, they became corrupt, and tyrannical. So, Allah sent on them Khuza‘ah, another tribe that came out from Yemen and settled in Hijaz. They went in and invaded Makkah and kicked Jurham out of Makkah. Khuza‘ah now became the new leaders of Makkah. By that time, the descendants of Isma‘il had increased in numbers. They branched out and spread out all over Arabia. But there was one branch that remained in Makkah, and that branch was of the Quraysh.
Qusay Bin Kilab Drives Khuza‘ah out of Makkah
The head of Quraysh – Qusay Bin Kilab, was able to unify the Quraysh. He revolted against the Khuza‘ah, and he was able to drive them out completely from Makkah. So finally, a descendant of Isma‘il combined both the political and religious leadership of Makkah. Qusay Ibn Kilab consolidated all power in his hands. He controlled the guardianship of the Ka’bah. He also controlled the provision of water and food for the pilgrims. Providing for the guests of Allah was considered a great honor. What this responsibility entailed was that all of the Arabs who would come for pilgrimage would be hosted by the people of Quraysh. They would provide them with food and water throughout their stay in the season of Hajj. Qusay was also the one who built the Dar al-Nadwa (دارالندوة), which was the parliament. He also held control over the banner of war. In other words, he was the one who had the power to declare war. So these were the authorities that Qusay Ibn Kilab had. Basically, he was the absolute ruler of Makkah.
When Qusay Bin Kilab died, these different aspects of authority were split among his children. One of his sons was known for his leadership skills. His name was ‘Abd Manaf. He became famous even in the lifetime of Qusay. ‘Abd Manaf was handed many responsibilities. And he was also loved by his people.
‘Abd Manaf’s son called ‘Amr inherited the authority of providing food and drink to the pilgrims. He began the practice of crushing bread into the soup. This was an upgrade to the meals provided to the pilgrims. Earlier they used to be offered soup only. The process of crushing in Arabic is called ‘Hashm’. So he was nicknamed Hashim. He was the great grandfather of Prophet (S).
Hashim got married in Madinah, from where he went to Palestine to do business. He passed away in Ghazzah and was buried there. His wife became pregnant and she gave birth to a child who was named Shaybah, which means ‘old man.’ Why would anybody call a child Shaybah? The reason is because the boy was born with some grey hair, so they named him Shaybah. And because his father had passed away, the mother stayed with her parents in Madinah, and he was brought up by his family in Madinah.
Al-Muttalib Takes Shaybah to Makkah
One day a man named Al-Muttalib who was Hashim’s brother came into Madinah to claim his nephew. Hashim’s son Shaybah who was now about eight years old was living there. He said that he wanted to take Shaybah back to his land in Makkah. The mother’s side of the family refused to give him up, but Al-Muttalib was finally able to convince them by saying that he belonged to a very noble family in Quraysh and he had to go back and learn about his heritage and learn about his family and start assuming responsibilities in Makkah.
Eventually they agreed to allow him to go. So Al-Muttalib took with him this child into Makkah. Nobody in Makkah had ever seen this child before, and in those days slavery was quite rampant. Usually they would buy slaves at a young age so that they would raise them up and train them to do whatever they wanted them to do. Since this boy was never seen in Makkah before, they assumed that he was the slave of Al-Muttalib, so they called him ‘Abdul Muttalib, meaning ‘the slave of Al-Muttalib’ and this was the grandfather of Prophet (S).
So far, we have talked briefly about Ibrahim and Isma‘il, then about Qusay, Hashim, and finally about ‘Abdul Muttalib. There were three important events that happened in the life of ‘Abdul Muttalib – the paternal grandfather of the Prophet (S), and these incidents were: (1) The rediscovery of Zamzam, (2) ‘Abdul Muttalib’s vow to sacrifice one of his sons, and (3) The incident of Abraha and the elephants. And these shall be discussed in our next session inshaAllah.
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Resources and References:
Imam Ibn Kathir – Stories of the Prophets
Leila Azzam & Aisha Gouverneur – the Life of the Prophet Muhammad
Anwar Al-Awlaki – The Life of Muhammad (Makkan Period) & The Life of Muhammad (Medina Period): https://www.kalamullah.com/muhammad.html
Aisha Stacey – The Religion of Islam (islamreligion.com)
