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The Prophetic
Family
The family of Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] is called the
Hashimite family after his grandfather Hashim bin ‘Abd Munaf. Let us
now speak a little about Hashim and his descendants:
- 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,[Ibn Hisham 1/137;
Rahmat-ul-lil'alameen 1/26,2/24] 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.[Ibn
Hisham 1/107]
- '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. [Ibn Hisham 1/137,138]
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. [Mukhtasar Seerat Ar-Rasool, p.41,42; Ibn Hisham 1/142-147]
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. [Ibn
Hisham 1/43-56; Tafheemul-Qur'an 6/462-469]
The Event of the Elephant took place
in the month of Al-Muharram, fifty or fifty five days before the birth
of Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] 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 holiness.
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. [Rahmat-ul-lil'alameen
2/56,66; Talqeeh Fuhoom Ahl Al-Athar, p8,9]
- 'Abdullah:
The father of Prophet Muhammad [pbuh]. 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 [pbuh] once said:
"I am the offspring of the slaughtered
two," meaning Ishmael and ‘Abdullah. [Ibn Hisham
1/151-155; Rahmat-ul-lil'alameen 2/89,90]
‘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 [pbuh] . 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. [Ibn Hisham 1/156-158; Fiqh As-Seerah p.45]
‘Abdullah left very little wealth —five
camels, a small number of goats, a she-servant, called Barakah – Umm
Aiman – who would later serve as the Prophet’s nursemaid. [Muslim 2/96; Talqeeh Fahoom Ahl-Athar p.4; Mukhtasar
Seerat Ar-Rasool p. 12] |