Saturday, March 24, 2007

Prophet Ishmael a.s #3


By Ben Al-Hussaini

The Illustrious Descendents of Ishmael

Ishmael had twelve sons by his wife, the daughter of Mudud. They were Nabet, Qidar, Edbael, Mebsham, Mishma’, Duma, Micha, Yetma, Yetour, Nafis and Qidman who formed the tribes inhabiting Makkah and that were conducting the trade between Yemen, Syria and Egypt. These tribes spread all over and outside the peninsula. All were untraceable except for the descendents of Nabet and Qidar.


The Nabetean, the sons of Nabet established a flourishing civilization in the north of Hijaz. They instituted a powerful government that spread its domain over all neighboring tribes and made Petra, in the present day Jordon, as their capital. Their authority was unchallenged except by the Romans. Later the kingdom ceased to exist. A group of Scholars inclined to the view that the Ghassanide kings, along with the Aws and Khazraj were descendants of Nabet, the son of Ishmael, which found to remain in the region. Imam Al-Bukhari also recorded this view, and Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar preffered the view that Qahtan was also among the decendants of Nabet. [1]

The Qidar descendents of lived in Makkah and from them had issued ‘Adnan and his son Ma’ad, known as the ‘Adnanian Arabs ancestry. ‘Adnan was the twenty-first great grandfather in the series of the Prophet Muhammad ancestry.

It was said that whenever Prophet Muhammad SAW spoke of his ancestry, he would stop at ‘Adnan and say: “Genealogist tell lies” and did not go farther than him. [2]. A group of scholars however favored the probability of going beyond ‘Adnan, considering the aforementioned Hadith to be unauthentic. They went on to say that there were exactly forty generations between ‘Adnan and Abraham. [3].

Nizar, Ma’ad’s only son, had four sons who branched out into four great tribes: Eyad, Anmar, Rabi’ah and Mudar. The Rabi’ah and Mudar further subs branched out into several tribes.

Rabi’ah branched Asad, ‘Anazah, ‘Abdul-Qais, and Wa’il’s two sons [Bakr and Taghlib], Hanifah and many others.

Mudar tribes branched out into two great divisions: [i] Qais ‘Ailan bin Mudar and tribes of [ii] Elias Bin Mudar. From Qais ‘Ailan came Banu Sulaim, Banu Hawazin, and Banu Ghatafan of whom descended ‘Abs, Dhubyan, Ashja’ and Ghani bin A’sur.

From Elias bin Mudar came [i] Tamim bin Murrah, [ii] Hudhail bin Mudrikah, [iii] Banu Aasad bin Khuzaimah and the tribe of Kinanah bin Khuzaimah, of whom came : Quraish, the decendants of Fihr bin Malik bin An-Nadr bin Kinanah.

The Quraish branched out into various tribes, the most famous four, were: [i] Jumah, [ii] Sahm, [iii] ‘Adi, [iv] Makhzum, [v] Tayim, [vi] Zahrah and [vii] Kilab, which the tribes of Qusai hailed consisting of—[i]Abdud-Dar bin Qusai, [ii] Asad bin ‘Abdul-‘Uzza bin Qusai and [ii] ‘Abdul Manaf bin Qusai.

There were four divisions of the tribe of ‘Abdul Manaf: [i] ‘Abd Shams, [ii] Nawfal, [iii] Muttalib and [iv] Hashim. It is from the family of Hashim that Allah selected the Prophet Muhammad SAW bin ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abdul –Muttalib bin Hashim.

The Prophet Muhammad SAW said:

“Allah chosen Ishmael from the sons of Abraham, Kinanah from the sons of Ishmael, Quraish from the sons of Kinanah, Hashim from the sons of Quraish and He selected me from the sons of Hashim.” [4]

Al-‘Abbas bin ‘Abdul-Muttalib quoted Allah’s Prophet SAW as saying:

“Allah created the creatures and made me among the best of them, He chose and tribes and selected me from the best whereof; and He chose families and made me among the best of them. Then He chose the households, making me among the bet of their households. I am the best of them in person and the best of them in household.” [5]

The children of ‘Adnan: the ‘Adnanians spread out over Arabia in pursuit of pastures and water.

‘Abdul-Qais, together with some tribes of Bakr bin Wa’il and Tamim immigrated to Bahrain. Banu Hanifah bin Sa’b bin Ali bin Bakar went to settle in Hajr, the capital of Yamamah. All tribes of Bakr bin Wa’il lived in an area of land that ncluded Yamamah, Bahrain, Saif Kazimah, the seashore, the outer borders of Iraq, Ablah and Hait.

Most of the tribe of Taghlib lived in the Euphrates area while some of them lived with Bakar; Banu Tamim lived in the desert of Basrah. Banu Sulaim lived in the vicinity of Madinah on the land stretching from Wadi Al-Qura to Khaibar onwards to Harrah. Thaqif dwelt in Ta’if and Hawazin east of Makkah near Awtas on the route from Makkah to Basrah. Banu Asad lived on the land east of Taima’ and west of Kufah, while family of Tai’ lived between Banu Asad and Taima’. Dhubyan inhabited in the area between Taima’ and Hawran.

Some divisions of Kinanah lived in Tihamah, while some of the Quraish dwelt in Makkah and its suburbs. The Quraish remained completely disunited until Qusai bin Kilab managed to rally their ranks on honorable terms, attaching major prominence to their status and importance. [6]


Footnotes:

1. Sahih Al-Bukhari, No.3507: Fathul-Bari 6/621-623. See also Nasab Ma’d wal-Yaman Al-Kabir 1/31.

2. Tarikh At-Tabari 2/191-194, and Al-A’lam 5/6.

3. Ibn Sa’ad 1/56. Tarikh At-Tabari 2/191, Tarikh Ibn Khaldun 2/2/298, Fathul-Bari 6/622. Rahmatul-Lil-‘Alamin.

4. Recorded by Muslim from Wathillah bin Al-Asqa”, the virtue of the Lineage of the Prophet SAW 2/245, and At-Tarmidhi 2/201.

5. At-Tarmidzi, The Book of Al-Manaqib, the virtue of the Lineage of the Prophet SAW At-Tarmidhi 2/201.

6. Muhadarat Tarikh Al-Umam Al-Islamiyah by Al-Khudari, 1/15, 16.

®srikandeh:The Sealed Nectar

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