Hadith Al-Hashemi
Chapters in the shades of the Prophet’s biography (1)
Introduction (The Magnificent Fathers)
The Prophet Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Abdul Muttalib bin Hashim (may God’s prayers be upon him) descends from a Quraysh family of lineage, lineage, and honor in the Quraysh tribe and in all the Arab tribes. It has been the law of God Almighty that prophets be honorable in their people, in addition to other perfections and characteristics in their personalities, such as good morals and character, and other such reasons that cause people to believe them or prevent people from turning away from their calling.
And the fact that the Prophet or Messenger is an honorable accountant among his people is a protection for him and his call from the disbelievers taking the initiative to kill him at the first clash that occurs between him and them. Give your imagination free rein if you think – for example – about the reactions of Abu Jahl and other masters of Quraysh and what they might do if a man appeared cursing their gods and belittling their minds and beliefs, and this man had no clan to prevent him, and the consequences of killing him were calculated a thousand times before doing so!
Killing such a man for those masters, or even for their fools and lowlifes, is – in that case – easier for them than drinking water.
And another matter, we found the leaders and elders of Quraysh objecting to being followers of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, out of envy on their part for him. Because they see that they are equal to him in honor, and they see that submitting to him through prophethood raises him and lowers them, so what will be their condition and the condition of others when they are ordered to follow a man who is lower than them in honor, lineage, and authority?!
What they argued with the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, in not accepting his prophecy was that he was not one of those with huge amounts of money, even though the money was earned, and it answered the issue of a person’s suitability to be an object of God’s selection of him through prophecy or piety. What would their words be if he had no money or lineage!!
In any case, it is from the wisdom of God Almighty and His kindness to the Messenger and the recipients that the Messenger possesses the greatest number of qualities and advantages that facilitate his mission of conveying the message and facilitate the reasons for acceptance and ratification for those who are called.
Moreover, it is not denied that the qualities of goodness, noble morals, and the exaltation of their God are inherited among noble and noble races across generations in most cases, and among the things that people memorize is the well-known wisdom (the race is Dasas).
The reasons for honor and sovereignty among the Arabs were, in addition to their connection with the usual reasons in other societies, such as bravery in wars, good opinion, skill, the possession of money, or inheriting prestige and leadership from one’s fathers. These reasons among the Arabs were mostly linked to good morals and high matters, such as the inherent qualities of honesty, courage, patience, forbearance, generosity, and other good morals whose impact was evident in the tribal society in preserving the neighborhood, protecting the weak, relieving the distressed, fulfilling covenants, and honoring others. Guests, supporting orphans and the destitute, sponsoring them, paying large blood money, exchanging blood money, extinguishing the fire of war between tribes, giving to beggars, and helping the public in years of drought and when famines and disasters occur…etc.
Returning to the talk about the forefathers of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, we say: The status of the Quraish tribe among the Arab tribes was acquired in its entirety from its proximity to the Sacred House of God and its standing in the service of the Kaaba and what is related to the rituals of Hajj and Umrah (which are rituals that were still remaining among the Arabs from the religion of Abraham, peace and blessings be upon him), and for this reason the glory and honor in Mecca was also connected to the Kaaba and its standing in the service of the pilgrims and those who went to the Sacred House.
Second grandfather (Hashim bin Abdul Manaf)
Hashim bin Abd Manaf bin Qusayy bin Kilab (who is the second grandfather of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace) was in charge of watering and feeding the pilgrims during the Hajj season, and he was generous. It is said that he was the one who established the winter and summer trade trips for his people. On one of his travels, Hashim married a woman from the Banu al-Najjar who belong to the Khazraj tribe in Yathrib. This woman became pregnant by Hashim and gave birth to a child whom she named (Shaybah), but Hashem did not see this child because he had died on this trip to Gaza from the land of Palestine.
After the death of Hashim, the watering and provision were transferred to his brother Al-Muttalib bin Abd Manaf, and he was also honorable among his people. Many years after the death of Hashim, his brother Al-Muttalib went to Yathrib to return with his nephew (Shaybah), intending for him to live as a stranger in Yathrib while his family in Mecca had the honor they had among their people. The boy’s mother agreed to his return with his uncle to his father’s home.
It happened that Al-Muttalib arrived in Mecca carrying his nephew (Shaybah) on his camel. When some people saw Shaybah, they thought he was a slave of Al-Muttalib and bought him, so they said: Abdul Muttalib. Al-Muttalib said to them: It is the gray hair of my nephew Hashim and he is not a slave.
It is strange that this temporary name took hold and followed his gray hair, so that he became famous for it and it overcame him after that, and he became known as (Abdul Muttalib).
First grandfather (Abdul Muttalib bin Hashim)
Abdul Muttalib took over the duties of his uncle Al-Muttalib after his death and carried out the duties of watering and feeding. Abdul Muttalib had one son, Al-Harith, so he faced difficulties in irrigation, which required bringing water from many wells and providing it to the pilgrims during rituals and in the Sanctuary. After a vision that Abdul Muttalib saw in his sleep, he re-dug the Zamzam well, which had been filled in after years and times had damaged it.
The Quraysh had disputed with Abdul Muttalib over the matter of the Zamzam Well, and wanted to share the watering with him as if to point out that he had only one son. So Abdul Muttalib vowed that if God blessed him with ten children and they reached the age of so much that he would be protected from slaughtering one of them at the Kaaba.
When Abdul Muttalib’s wish was fulfilled and he had ten sons, and they had reached the age of 10, he informed them of his vow and that he must fulfill it. The summary of this news is that he ordered them to write his name on each of the arrows that he used to strike in front of the idols, and the one whose arrow came out would be the one who was sacrificed. Then they cast ballots and the arrow came out in the name of (Abdullah), the father of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace. Abdul Muttalib intended to fulfill his vow and slaughter his son, but they were uninformed. (Abdullah) and other members of the Quraish advised Abdul Muttalib not to do this until he asked a famous fortune teller at that time. Perhaps she would show him a way out for him without slaughtering the most beloved of his children. The soothsayer instructed them to put Abdullah’s name on an arrow and put the equivalent of the dead man’s blood money on another arrow (which was ten camels at the time). If an arrow came out, they slaughtered them, and if Abdullah’s arrow came out, they increased the number of camels and repeated the lot until an arrow came out. Camels, and that number is the ransom that the Lord of Abdul Muttalib was pleased with in fulfilling the vow that he made upon himself.
They kept voting and Abdullah’s share came out until the number of camels reached one hundred, and their share came out and Abdullah escaped slaughter.
Abdul Muttalib and the elephant incident:
The hearts of the Arabs were yearning for Mecca, heading to the Kaaba, the Sacred House that God had made a qibla for people to perform Umrah and pilgrimage to. It was previously mentioned that this matter was a remnant of the religion of Abraham among the Arabs, who distorted his religion into the worship of idols and fetishes. The widespread status of the Kaaba and its destination from all parts of the Arabian Peninsula angered Abraha Al-Ashram, the deputy (Najashi), King of Abyssinia in Yemen, so he built in Sana’a, Yemen, a Kaaba that imitated the Kaaba. Meccan, but it is more luxurious and grander than it in construction and construction. He thought that the Arabs would go to this new majestic Kaaba and visit it and abandon the Meccan Kaaba. When he was disappointed and saw the people’s asceticism in visiting his new Kaaba and their lack of reverence for it, he decided to demolish the Meccan Kaaba in order to erase its design and cut off its memory from existence.
When Abraha arrived with his large army, led by a huge elephant, to the outskirts of Mecca, they confiscated camels they found there, and they were Abdul Muttalib’s camels. The Meccans knew that they would not agree to fight this large, organized army, so they chose not to resist and to remain alone between the army and the Kaaba, certain that God would defend His Sacred House and prevent it from anyone who wanted it to do harm.
Abd al-Muttalib went out to Abrahah to release his camels that had been detained by the army. Abd al-Muttalib was showing signs of honor and sovereignty, so Abrahah thought he was the messenger of his people to negotiate with him about the Kaaba. When he spoke to him about the camels, it was as if he looked down on this act of his and disapproved of it. Abrahah explained to him the discrepancy that had occurred to him between what he thought of him and what appeared to him. Abd al-Muttalib said a famous saying: (I Lord of the camels, so I came seeking them, and the House has a Lord who protects it.
God protected his house as Abdul Muttalib thought and as the Quraysh thought, and a heavenly miracle occurred. The army was chased by birds carrying small stones in their beaks, then they fell on the soldiers, and those small stones that fell on them killed those who fell on them. Thus, this army dispersed and dispersed, and those who remained alive returned, disappointed and losing.
This incident increased the status of the Kaaba and the Sacred House in the hearts of the Arabs, and it also increased the status of the Quraysh among them, and that they are the people of God and the custodians of His House. The Elephant incident had such resonance and resonance that it made people date the events with it, saying: This thing happened before the Year of the Elephant, and so-and-so was born in the Year of the Elephant, and so-and-so died after the Year of the Elephant…etc.
Father (Abdullah bin Abdul Muttalib)
Abdullah bin Abdul Muttalib bin Hashim, who survived the slaughter and was ransomed with a hundred camels, was a handsome, noble young man, and his father decided to marry him to a woman from the Quraysh who had the same honor as him, so his choice fell on Mrs. Amna bint Wahb bin Abd Manaf from Banu Zahra, as her father was the master of Banu Zahra by lineage and honor.
A few months after Abdullah built Aminah and carried it from him, Abdullah went out on trade to the Levant, and when the caravan returned, Abdullah fell ill, so he went to the homes of his father’s maternal uncles, Banu al-Najjar, in Yathrib to nurse with them. The caravan returned without him, so Abdul Muttalib sent his son al-Harith to Yathrib to find out what his brother was, and he found him dead and buried there. The father and the young wife were extremely saddened by this news.