Before the birth of the prophet Muhammad (saaw, Peace be upon him)

The lineage of the prophet Muhammad (saaw , Peace be upon him)

The biographers and genealogists traced back the ancestry of ‘Muhammad’ (saaw, Peace be upon him) to ‘Adnan’. And there are others who traced it back to ‘Abraham’ (saaw).

‘Muhammad’ is bin (son of) ‘Abdu-Allah’ bin (son of) ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ bin (son of) ‘Hashim’ bin ‘Abd-Munaf’ bin (son of) ‘Qusai’ bin (son of) ‘Kilab’ bin (son of) ‘Murra’ bin (son of) ‘Ka’b’ bin (son of) ‘Loay’ bin (son of) ‘Ghalib’ bin ‘Fahr’ (son of) bin (son of) ‘Malik’ bin (son of) ‘An-Nadr’ bin (son of) ‘Kinana’ bin (son of) ‘Khuziman’ bin (son of) ‘Mudrikah’ bin (son of) Elias ‘Mudar’ bin (son of) ‘Nizar’ bin (son of) ‘Ma’ad’ bin (son of) ‘Adnan’ bin (son of) ‘Ismail’ bin (son of) ‘Abraham’ (saaw).

‘Muhammad’ (saaw) Peace be upon him is a son of ‘Abdu-Allah’ bin ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ and ‘Amena’ a daughter of ‘Abd-Munaf bin ‘Zahra’ bin ‘Kilab’.

‘Abdu-Allah’ bin ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ was very smart than his brothers; he was so cherished to ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ than the other sons.

Abdul Mutalib asked God, the Glorified, to give him ten sons. He vowed that if God gave him ten sons he would sacrifice one of them for Him. When ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ had ten sons he revealed the secret vow to them. He should have chosen between them the one who could be a sacrifice to Al-Ka’ba. After he made a lottery between them, Abdu-Allah was selected to be the sacrifice.

 Then ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ has taken him to Al-Ka’ba to slaughter him, but his tribe including his uncles stopped ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ to slaughter his son. They asked him to consult a she-diviner. After many trials and when the number of camels reached one hundred, the arrows were drawn to the camels. Meanwhile, ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ slaughtered the camels instead of his son ‘Abdu-Allah’.

 ‘Abdu-Allah’ has married ‘Amena’ who was from a known ancestry. She was very demure and chaste. Their marriage took place in Makkah.

After the marriage ‘Abdul-Mutalib’ sent ‘Abdu-Allah’ to trade in Madinah (Syria), and when he was going back to Makkah he died. He was buried in the house of ‘An-Nabigha Al-Judi’. In the mean time ‘Amena’ was pregnant of Muhammad (saaw).

The Year of Elephant

‘Abraha As-Sabah Al-habashi’ built a large church in Sana’a (The capital of Yemen) to push people to perform pilgrimage to it, so that they disregard Al Ka’ba. But a man from Kinana tribe sneaked into the church at night, and he marked its front wall with excrement. ‘Abaraha’ became outraged that he broke out a war. He led a large army with huge Elephants to demolish Al-Ka’ba. When they reached Al-Ka’ba, the elephants aimed towards it. Suddenly they stopped and knelt next to the house of Allah (swt) as a great respect to this noble place, which even the animals know that it is the house of the Almighty Allah (swt). Afterwards Allah (swt) sent birds carrying stones in their claws. Those birds threw the stones on the heads of ‘Abraha’ and his army. The majority soldiers were killed then.

This event happened in the month of Al-Muharram, around fifty days before the birth of the prophet Muhammad (saaw, Peace be upon him) which was in 571A.D.

The event of elephant asserted to the whole word that Al-Ka’ba has its Lord who protects it from any raid.

After this miraculous event the world witnessed a birth of the master of all creation, the noble, and the trustworthy man, namely the prophet Muhammad (saaw, Peace be upon him) who said:

“I have four names: I am Muhammad

(Whom Allah (swt) praises by the virtue of his noble acts),

I am Ahmed (Who always praises Allah swt),

I am Al-Mahi (By whom Allah (swt) delete the disbelief from the world),

I am Al-Hashir (All the people will be crowded into paradise after him (saaw)),

I am Al-Akib (The Last of the prophets)”

(Al-Bukhari and Muslim and others)

By Youssef Khannou

Reference:

-       ‘’The sealed nectar‘’, Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Dar-us-Salam 1994.

-       ‘’ Women around the messenger’’, ‘Muhammad Ali Qutb’, International Islamic Publiching House.