The story of Ibrahim!

To fully understand the prophet Muhammad (saw)’s life and character we must first study his ancestory. The prophet Muhammad is a descendant of the prophet Ibrahim (as).

The prophet Ibrahim is sometimes referred to as father Ibrahim. He had two wives Sarah and Hajr. The prophet Ibrahim was told by Allah to travel to Arabia with Hajr and their son Ismael. They went to Mecca which then was a dead valley. Even then, the Ka’bah was known as a sacred place.

Upon arriving to Mecca, Ibrahim left his wife and son with some water and food. Hajr ran after him and implored “why are you leaving us?”, when he replied it was the third time she had asked, and the reason was because Allah had told him to, so she went back to her son.

Ibrahim (as) faced the Ka’bah and prayed for his family. He first prayed for them to pray to Allah (spiritual needs), second to put their love in peoples hearts (social needs) and then finally to provide them with some fruit (physical needs).

Both of them were very hungry because their food had run out and Ismael started to cry. So she then climbed a hill now called al-Safa then ran and climbed another hill now called al-Marwa in search for some food she did this seven times until she heard a sound and it was coming from beneath Ismael’s feet.

It was water; she dug a round hole so that she could store the water and it was coming out a well she did this so that the water would not get soaked into the ground and she didn’t let it flow like a river.
So it is now that when we go to the two mountains we follow her footsteps in Hajj. The water is a source of life for animals such as birds.

The tribe of Jurhum!

The tribe Jurhum lived in Yemen, amongst other tribes .This was a rich place, the tribes had built a dam and had a year round source of water. Therefore they were never hungry or thirsty.

One day the dam broke. A lot of people died and the remaining had to migrate. Some of the tribes went to Oman some to Jordan and the tribe Jurhum was just wandering through the dessert looking for a place to live.
This was round about the time when the miracle of Ismael happened and Zam-Zam came gushing out from beneath his feet. In the barren desert there was now water therefore; birds and animals flocked there to drink water. When the Jurhum people saw birds in Mecca and were surprised so they sent two people to investigate.

They found Hajr and Ismael by the water. Even though they were a tribe of warriors, they kindly asked Hajr if they could stay. Astonishingly even though Hajr wanted them to stay, she began to negotiate with them. She said to them that if you stay the water remains mine. They agreed, Hajr was clever and brave; she now had company and owned the water. You can also see the dua of Ibrahim (as) is answered.

Ismael grew up with the people of Jurhum and adapted their language Arabic. He married a woman from among them. Ismael was the religious leader of the people and this was passed on through descendants. The Jurhum were the political leaders and they set rules e.t.c

The End of Jurhum
Jurhum stayed in Mecca for 2000years but they gradually became corrupt. Allah allowed a tribe called Khaza to Invade. They kicked out all Jurhum and when Jurhum left they did two things. First they filled up and erased all signs of the wall of Zam-Zam, and secondly they stole all the treasures from the Ka’bah. One branch remained in Mecca, this was the Quraish and these were the direct descendants of Ismael.

Kusay Bin Khalal!

Kusay bin Khalal was the head of Quraish, he rebelled and drove out the people ok Khaza. He then became the ruler of Mecca. For the first time he combined political and religious leadership. Kusay Bin Khalal took over the following responsibilities of:-controlling the guardianship of the Ka’bah-Mecca (he was the absolute ruler of Mecca), controlling the giving of water and food to pilgrims all throughout their stay, controlling al-wadra-parliament, controlling al-Lura-the banner of war, (when it is raised war is declared).

His Grandchildren
So he became the absolute ruler of Mecca and upon his death, these responsibilities were divided between his children. The provision of food for the pilgrims was inherited by his grandchild Umar.

In the past, the food for pilgrims was soup and water. Umar added crushed bread therefore he earned the name the crusher in Arabic-Hashim. So they all called him Abu Hashim.
Abu Hashim the great grandfather

Abu Hashim is the great grandfather of the prophet, he went to Madinah where upon he married and had a child. The boy was born with a couple of grey hair so they called him Shaybah-old man.
He stayed in Madinah, his father travelled to Palestine where he died.

When Shaybah was eight years old, his uncle, al-Muttalib came to claim him. He was Hashim’s brother. He wanted Shaybah to know his heritage.
At first, his mother was reluctant to send him but when al-Muttalib explained he was of the tribe Quraish, she allowed him to leave.

Al-Muttalib

Al-Muttalib took his nephew to Mecca. The boy walked behind his uncle. In that time, slavery was common so the towns people thought that Al-Muttalib had bought a slave therefore they called him Abdul-Muttalib slave of Muttalib. Abdul Muttalib

Abdul Muttalib-grandfather of the prophet had a dream where someone came to him and told him “to dig for something pure”, so Abdul Muttalib asked him, “What is pure?” but there was no reply. The following night he had the same dream but now the voice said to “dig the precious” so again Abdul Muttalib asked in his dream, “What is precious?” but again there was no reply. Finally the third night he had the same dream but again this time the voice said something different, it said to “dig Zam-Zam and Abdul Muttalib asks, “What is Zam-Zam?”. The voice gave a clue and answered that “It never fails or the water will never dry up”… the answer was in the form of a riddle.

Abdul Muttalib
Continued

Eventually Abdul Muttalib found the well of zam-zam. The other tribes did not try to claim it.
Abdul Muttalib had one son, Al-Marith; he thought he was weak so asked Allah for 10 sons, promising he would sacrifice one. He was then blessed with ten sons and six daughters.
The time had come for Abdul Muttalib to decide which of his children to sacrifice. He cast lots (he put all their names on a straw and picked one without looking) thus leaving it to Allah to decide which child was to be sacrificed.

The straw came on Abdullah. He was the tenth son and a favourite. He cast lots again. The third time it came on Abdullah again. Abdul Muttalib went to slaughter Abdullah in front of the Ka’bah. He wanted to fulfil his promise to Allah. At the Ka’bah, Abu talibs son stopped him. He told them that people will copy this action of yours. Abdul Muttalib argued that it was a pledge to Allah. They decided to go to a witch to resolve the dispute.

The witch asked,” What is retribution payed for murder amongst you?” At that time in Makkah, if one tribe member murdered someone from another tribe, he would have to pay “blood money” or retribution for the dead mans life”.

They answered” ten camels”, the witch told them to put ten camels on one side and Abdullah on one side. The name still came on Abdullah. He continued to add 10 camels at a time until the name of Abdullah was not drawn. The total camels to slaughter were 100. Abdul Muttalib made sure by drawing lots 3 times, and the name of Abdullah was not drawn. Finally it was decided that he would slaughter 100 camels instead of Abdullah.

This event became famous amongst the people. They said there was so much meat that even the birds in the sky were fed that even today the blood money for one person’s equivalent to 100 camels. Abdullah went on to marry Aamina. He died before the birth of the prophet Muhammad.

Tauheed religous backgrounds of Arabia

The Arabs of Arabia Started out as Muslim from Ismaeel. They believed in Tauheed-one god. At the time of the prophet Muhammad there were three religions present in Arabia; Christianity, Judaism and idolatry.

This is how idolatry started in Mecca. Ammar Bin Lahl was the leader of Khaza. He was well-respected and his words were law. He travelled to the centre of Syria which is Jerusalem. He found idols there and asked “What are these?” The people said “these idols appeal to god for us”. They had different idols to ask for different things e.g. rain, food and e.t.c

Ammar decided to take one with him to Mecca. He put it next to the Ka’bah and said to the people ask of it what you want. Ka’bah was the centre of religion; many people went on pilgrimage there. When they saw the idols they wanted to take the idols with them from Mecca. The people in Mecca saw this as a business opportunity and began making portable idols for people to take with them. The trend caught until every tribe had its own idol at the Ka’bah.

At the time of the prophet Muhammad, there were approximately 360 idols surrounding the Ka’bah. Ammar bin Luhl was seen by Muhammad (saw) in the new fire dragging his entraits.

Jews of Madinah

At the time of the prophet Muhammad (saw), three Jewish tribes had settled in Madinah. They had come from Jerusalem, searching for the lost prophet. They had seen signs in Madinah indicating there arrival of the last prophet this is why there were so many Jews in Madinah.

The Year of the Elephant
The prophet Muhammad was born in the year famously known as the year of the elephant. The Arabs had no calendar to keep dates by so a year was named by the most famous event that took place.

Yemen was ruled by a king called Abrahar. Each year he would see people from his kingdom go on pilgrimage to Mecca. He decided to build a palace in Yemen so his people could do pilgrimage there and not go to the Ka’bah. He did not know that there were people from Mecca in Yemen.

These people saw the palace and laughed. They decided to put dirt on the palace. When people saw the dirt on the palace they were repulsed by it. The king was furious. He realised that no one would do pilgrimage in Yemen while the Ka’bah was standing. He came to the decision to destroy the Ka’bah.

The Yemen army was huge. They had horses and many elephants. The elephants were an excellent war weapon as they are almost impossible to kill and crush everything in their path. When the Meccans heard of this force heading their way, many became frightened and fled to the safety of the mountains.

The Yemenis were camped outside Mecca. Abdul Muttalib was the leader of Quraish. He had heard that some Yemenis had stolen his camels which were grazing outside Mecca. He went to confront the Yemeni king.

Abdul Muttalib was old but nevertheless he was an authorative figure. The king realised he was a leader of people and invited Abdul Muttalib to sit by him. Abdul Muttalib complained that some Yemenis had stolen his camels. The king was astonished “you ask about your camels when I am going to crush your Ka’bah?” he asked. Abdul Muttalib replied “I am the owner of the camels therefore I look out for them. But Allah is the owner of the Ka’bah, therefore he will look out for it”. The king was impressed by the mans courage and returned his camels to him. Abdul Muttalib went back to Mecca.

The next day, the Yemeni army marched towards Makkah. They were still quite far from the city when Allah sent their death to them. It came in the form of birds which pelted stones at the elephants and soldiers until not one remained. One man ran and hid but the birds still found him and finished him off.