One day, one of the Companions, Abdullah bin Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) asked, “Oh Allah’s Messenger, will you explain what Allah created before everything else”? The Holy Prophet (PBUH) answered: “Before everything, He created your Messenger’s noor (light) from His own light. The light would travel with Allah’s power and as it wished. At that time, there was no lawh mahfuz (preserved tablet), no pen, no Heaven, no Hell, no angel, no sky, no land, no sun, no moon, no person, and no jinn. 1. The light that brightened the entire sky with its sublimity later shone on Hazrat Adam’s forehead. It then passed from prophet to prophet and proceeded to Prophet Ibrahim and was transferred by inheritance to his son, Prophet Ismail…

Hazrat Ibrahim received a command from God Almighty to reconstruct this sacred building (the Kaaba), and immediately began to work with his son, Ismail. When the Kaaba’s reconstruction was complete, both the father and the son opened their hands to Allah and begged:

“Our Lord! Send a Messenger from our progeny to the Muslim Ummah so that he can read to them your verses, teach them your books and their laws, and cleanse them from their sins! 2. God Almighty did not leave this sincere prayer unanswered. He accepted this prayer by sending the head of all prophets through Hazrat Ismail’s lineage. The Master of the Universe, Muhammad (pbuh) expressed this reality by saying, “I am the supplication (dua) of my father Ibrahim”. Hazrat Ismail’s children and grandchildren continuously increased and they spread all over the Arabian Peninsula. From them, the sons of Adnan, and from them the sons of Mudar, and from them the tribe of Quraysh became superior and different from the others. The Hashim branch of the Quraysh tribe found the most honor and reputation of all.

He himself described this reality as follows: “Allah chose Ismail from Ibrahim’s sons, the sons of Kinana from the sons of Ismail , Quraysh from the sons of Kinana, Bani Hashim from Quraysh, and me from Bani Hashim”. 4.

“I was chosen from generation to generation, from family to family, and descended from the purest lineage of the sons of Adam, and eventually I emerged from the family that I am found in, the Sons of Hashim”.

“Allah had me continuously transferred from the lineages of lawful (halal) fathers and the wombs of pure mothers and finally had me emerged from my father and mother. From Adam and until my mother and father, nobody from my lineage came out of wedlock”.

1. Qastalani, Mawahib al-Ladunniyya:1/7

2. Surah al-Baqara, 129

3. Ibn Hisham, Sira: 1/175; Tabari, Tarikh: 2/128.

4. Ibn Sa'd, Tabakqat: 1/20. Muslim: 7/58