1. Seerah

2. Genealogy of Prophet Muhammad

3. The ancestry of Prophet Muhammad goes back to almost 4000 years ago to Prophet Abraham (Pbuh) from a town called “Ar” near Kufa on the west bank of the Euphrates in Iraq.

4. Journeys of Abraham
It is known that Abraham (Peace be upon him) left “Ar” for Harran and traveled to Palestine, to spread the message of Allah and chose Jerusalem as a central place for religion.

5. Abraham, Sarah and Hagar (a.s)
When he went to Egypt, the Pharaoh tried to do evil to his wife Sarah, but Allâh saved her and the Pharaoh’s wicked scheme recoiled on him. He thus came to realize her strong attachment to Allâh, and, in acknowledgment of her grace, the Pharaoh rendered his daughter Hagar (hajrah) at Sarah’s service, but Sarah gave her to Abraham and he chose to marry Hagar.

6. Abraham reaches Makkah
Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. And while Ishmael was still a small baby Allah commanded Abraham to send Hagar and her baby away to a plant less valley on a small hill in Hijaz, by the Sacred House.

7. Abraham left Hagar and Ishmael
He chose for them a place under a lofty tree above Zamzam near the upper side of the Mosque in Makkah where neither people nor water was available, and went back to Palestine, leaving with his wife and baby a leather case with some dates and a pot of water.

8. Not before long, they ran out of both food and water, but thanks to Allâh’s favour miraculously water started gushing forth from earth right where ishmael was lying.

9. Population of Makkah grows
After them a Yemeni tribe “Jurhum” came and lived in Makkah upon Hagar’s permission.

10. Sacrifice of Ishmael
When Ishmael was about 14 or 15 years old, Allaah ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son in the way of Allaah.
When Abraham did not hesitate to fullfill Allaah s command, Allaah replaced Ishmael with a sheep and accepted their sacrifice.
Thus, Ishmael got the title of Zabeeh Ullaah

11. Marriage of ishmael
When Ishmael became a young man, he learned Arabic at the hand of the tribe of Jurhum, who loved him with great admiration and was married to the daughter of Mudad bin ‘Amr, chief of the tribe of Jurhum.

12. Building of Ka’abah
Father and son built Al-Ka‘bah and raised its pillars, and Abraham, in compliance with Allâh’s Commandment, called unto people to make pilgrimage to it.

13. Genealogy of Prophet Muhammad
By the grace of Allâh, Ishmael had twelve sons from the daughter of Mudad, the leader of jurhum tribe.
Descendants of Qidar, the son of Ishmael, lived long in Makkah increasing in number, of them issued ‘Adnan and son Ma‘ad, to whom ‘Adnanian Arabs traced back their ancestry.

14. Qidar

15. Prophet Muhammad said: “Allâh selected Ishmael from the sons of Abraham, Kinana from the sons of Ishmael, Quraish from the sons of Kinana, Hashim from the sons of Quraish and He selected me from the sons of Hashim.”

16. Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) as saying “Allâh created mankind and chose me from the best whereof, He chose the tribes and selected me from the best whereof; and He chose families and selected me from the best whereof. I am the very best in person and family.”

17. Aspects of Pre Islamic Arabs

18. The Political Situation
Before Islam there were two kinds of rulers:
Crowned Kings
Heads of Tribes and Clans

19. Crowned Kings
Yemen
Syria
Ghassan
Heerah

20. Heads of Tribes and Clans
The tribe heads were chosen by the whole tribes.
The heads enjoyed dictatorial privileges similar to those of kings and were rendered full obedience in both war and peace.

21. People were divided only in two groups, master or slaves, Rulers or sub-ordinates.
The slaves and sub-ordinates were in extremely bad situation suffering from ignorance, oppression, inequity, injustice and hardship.

22. Rulers of Hijaz
They were greatly esteemed and respected by the Arabs and were considered as rulers and servants of the religious center as they were the guardians of Ka’aba, House of Allah.

23. Religions of the Arabs
Idolatory
Christianity
Judaism
Hanifites

24. Idolatry
Initially, the Arabs were on the religion of Abraham and Ishmael.
Amr Bin Luhai was the first man to bring an Idol “Hubal” from Syria, placing it in the middle of Ka’aba and summoned people to worship it.
Later, many other idols were bought and made for eg Lat, Uzza, Mannat, etc.

25. Social Life of Arabs
The Arabian Society presented a social mixture, with different and diverse social level.
Status of Women
Noble and well respected.
Ill treated, disgraced and buried alive after birth.

26. Four Kinds of Marriage Present day Marriage.
Husband sends his wife to cohabit with another man.
Group of less than ten men would have intercourse with a woman.
A lot of men having intercourse with a woman.

27. Attachment to Clan
The Bedouin’s were deeply and emotionally attached to their clan.
Their motto was “Support your brother whether he is an oppressor or oppressed”.
Inter-tribal relationships were fragile.

28. Economic condition of Arabs
The economic condition was equally grave as the social condition.
Professions:
Trade
Industries of knitting
Tannage
Farming
Live stock
Yarn spinning