by Khaled Hammad

A picture of the author.

Khaled’s fascinating story is serialized on this site on Thursdays. You can read it here:

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here. Part 7 is here. Part 8 is here. Part 9 is here. Part 10 is here.

Part 11 is here. Part 12 is here.

 There is also a poem by Khaled.

A Journey Through Hell Fire

Breaking free from Islam Between Halal and Haram

Chapter 13: “The Prophet’s Ancestors”

We are now going to take a glimpse at the tribal political climate in Mecca according to Sayyid Al Qemany’s book The Hashemite Party. A reminder of the official name of the Prophet Muhammed may help the reader to realize the significance of his ancestors in shaping the history of Mecca, that small village which has the most holy construction in the Islamic tradition, the Ka’aba (Arabic for the Cube), and which was supposedly built by Ibrahim and his son Ismail, to which Islam credits the sacrificial-son event, instead of Izaac in Christianity. Mecca would become the cradle of Islam from which armies would launch campaigns and defeat the two most powerful empires at that time, the Byzantine state and the Persian empire. The official name is Muhammed bin Abd Allah bin Abd al-Muttalib bin Hashim bin Abd Manaf bin Qussay bin Kilab.

Before diving into the world of the Prophet’s ancestors and their role, it might be worth mentioning that some scholars have argued that the Prophet’s name was not actually Mohammed and that his name was Kotham. However, the evidence for that is debatable but that is the reason I am using the term “official name.”

Qussay Bin Kilab.

Let’s start with Qussay Bin Kilab. According to Islam, he descended from Ismail, the son of Ibrahim, He grew up in Syria and emigrated to Mecca, and soon he ruled Mecca as a king after gaining the trust of his father-in-law with the Ka’aba’s keys.

Qussay distributed the duties of serving pilgrims among the tribes.

Abd Manaf, Qussay’s Son. The word Abd means “the slave of”. So Abdullah, the famous Islamic name you might have heard a lot of, means the slave of Allah. Abdulrazek means the slave of the Razek, which is one of the 99 names of the Islamic God, which means the giver, and so on.  Abd Manaf was not his father’s favourite son. That caused a rivalry between him and his brother, Abd ad Dar, a rivalry that would cast its shadow over the history of Mecca for decades to come.

Hashim, Was the son of Abd Manaf and the great-grandfather of the Prophet. He argued for the inheritance of his father to be transferred to his clan from his uncle Abd ad Dar. However, he was challenged by his nephew, Umayya, the grandfather of Moaawya bin Abu Sophean, who established the Umayyad state, the Sunni denomination’s origin. Hashim’s son, on the other side, was the grandfather of Ali bin Aby Taleb who is the head figure of the Shia denomination.

This is important because of the continuing conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims  which we still suffer from to this very day in the form of the cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and which takes place by proxy in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, all of which originated by a rivalry between Umayya and his uncle Hashim way before Islam was born.

Hashim Established Mecca as an essential point in the trade route between the Levant or Sham, which is the area that is now Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Israel, from one side and Yemen from the other side. Traders used to go to the Levant in Summer and to Yemen in winter.

All of the above demonstrates how the mere mention of the full official title of the Prophet Muhammed not only evokes the recollection of both regional and Islamic history but constantly renews the ancient grudges held between different factions of the faith.

What was Mecca like at that time?

To be continued…