The Prophets Of Allah

Genealogy - 2

So now let us begin very quickly about the immediate ancestors of the Prophet SAW, whom we know a little bit more about; beginning with Qusoy, and then Abd Manaaf, and then Hashim, and then Abdul Muttalib. That will be our rest of the halaqa for today. What we know about these people. And then we'll stop before the birth of.... I mean, Abdullah and Aminah; and the story we already have that -in sha Allah-. So today we'll just finish up with the story of Qusoy, Abd Manaaf, Hashim, and Abdul Muttalib.

Qusoy. How many generations? I want everybody to memorize at least up to Qusoy. At least up to Qusoy. So come with me. Come with me.

#1? Muhammad ibn?
Abdillah. ibn?
Abdul Muttalib. ibn?
Hashim. ibn?
Abd Manaaf. ibn?
Qusoy.

Okay? Memorize this. At least this much. Everybody should know, okay?

So. Qusoy is the ~star~ of the Quraish, that's why he is called 'The Minor Quraish'. He really started the immediate ascent of the Quraish. So that when the Prophet SAW came, the Quraish are at the pinnacle of their power...okay? So Qusoy is the one who 'began'. And then 5 generations later, the Prophet SAW comes (and of course he then takes it to an international level).

So what did Qusoy do? And when did he live? Qusoy lived around 400 CE. Around 400 CE. i. e. 170 years before the birth of the Prophet SAW. So what did Qusoy do?

Many things.

The most important thing he did: he wrestled back the power of the political city of Makkah into the descendants of the Quraish. Well who was in Makkah at the time? There was another tribe of the descendants of 'Adnaan, but not of the descendants of Fihr; i.e. not a Qurashi. And this was the tribe of Khuzaa'ah.

So who are the Khuzaa'ah? They are another Ismaili...hhh... when I say Ismaili, I don't mean that Ismaili. Ismaili meaning, of the descendants of Ismail...right? : Another branch. Not the descendants of Fihr/Quraish. The Khuzaa'ah are another branch of the descendants of Ismail. And the Khuzaa'ah had taken over the city of Makkah. Who did they take it over from? From the ancient Arabs that Ismail had married into and that is? Who did Ismail married into? Jurhum. Jurhum. So Ismail had married into Jurhum; Jurhum stayed for awhile; they began doing bad things: overtaxing the people; so the Khuzaa'ah overthrew them and kicked out everybody, including Fihr's descendants i.e. the original Quraish. So where were they living? They were living in a small encampments, in small dwellings outside of Makkah. i.e. not in the city of Makkah, but traveling distance from Makkah.

So Qusoy...(in a long story mentioned by ibn Ishaaq), managed to win over the tribe of Khuzaa'ah; the chieftain of the tribe. How did he do so? By a very smart tactical move. He married his daughter. So the chieftain of Khuzaa'ah, he had sons. He had daughters. Qusoy managed to marry one of his daughters. And he then demonstrated his skills over and above the sons even of the chieftain of Khuzaa'ah. And therefore when the father died, now he's in the family; he's a son in law. The people wanted Qusoy over the sons. And because of this, he managed to actually go to war with the other tribes; and he called in the descendants of Fihr i.e. the other Qurashi tribes; and this is now the 'Gathering' (some people say this is why 'Qurashi' is called 'Quraish'; some people say this). He gathered together the tribes of Banu Fihr. And he fought the tribes of Khuzaa'ah; and of course they're very distant cousins, obviously; VERY distant cousins; but he fought them and he expelled them; so he took over Makkah.

So the great great grandfather (6 generations back; of course the great great great grandfather of the Prophet SAW) reclaimed Makkah for the Quraish. Or I should say 'claimed it', because before that time until the time of Ismail, there was no. So Quraish, when did they start their rise to power? In the time of Qusoy.

Now, what else did Qusoy do? Qusoy was the one who built the Dar al-Nadwa; which was the parliament. He was the one who instituted this concept of 'everybody come and voice your opinion.
He also took custody of the Ka'bah and he assigned responsibilities that trickle down; the responsibility of water, the responsibility of hospitality, the responsibility of dhiyaf (of guests), the responsibility of the keys of the Ka'bah; HE was the one who made a list of responsibilities. And when he was alive, he had it all. Then amongst his sons, it was distributed; until the days of Banu Hashim where each tribe had a certain responsibility; and as we know, even in the time of the Prophet SAW, one of the tribes (the Banu Abd al-Dar) had the key, one had this, one had that; so this...all of these responsibilities, Qusoy was the one who began it. AND this also indicates that Qusoy was the one who began the institution of taking care of the hujjaj/pilgrims. So the hujjaj would get free food and water. That wasn't there before. Now this is frankly... he's probably a good guy and nobody is denying that, and he's also a good politician. Because to be a good politician, what must you do? Make the people happy. There's nothing wrong with being a good guy and a good politician. I know it's rare, but that's...