The Makkan Period, Part 4: Lineage, Names, Nursing, and the Pact of the Virtuous
Section 3 of 23 · The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: The Makkan Period
The Noblest of Lineage
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) speaks about his lineage, and there are a few hadiths that state this. First of all, Allah (swt) says:
وَإِذَا جَآءَتْهُمْ ءَايَةٌ قَالُوا۟ لَن نُّؤْمِنَ حَتَّىٰ نُؤْتَىٰ مِثْلَ مَآ أُوتِىَ رُسُلُ ٱللَّهِ ۘ ٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهُۥ ۗ سَيُصِيبُ ٱلَّذِينَ أَجْرَمُوا۟ صَغَارٌ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَعَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌۢ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَمْكُرُونَ
“When a sign comes to them, they say, “We shall never come to believe unless we are given the like of what was given to the messengers of Allah.” Allah knows best where to place His message. Those who committed sin shall soon suffer from disgrace before Allah and face severe punishment for the mischief they have been making.” (6:124)
Allāhu aʿlamu ḥaythu yajʿalu risālatah: Allah knows best where to place His message. So Allah (swt) chose the best to be His messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him).
Imam Aḥmad narrates a hadith that people were talking about different things concerning Muhammad (peace be upon him). For example, they said that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was like a green tree grown in a desert. What they were trying to say is that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the only good person among his clan. So Ibn ʿAbbās says: certain things the people were saying reached the Messenger of Allah, so he mounted the pulpit and asked, "Who am I?" They replied and said, "You are the Messenger of Allah." He replied: "I am Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib" — which means, "I am Muhammad, son of ʿAbdullāh, son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. Allah devised the creation and made me part of His best creatures. He made them all into two groups, placing me in the better of them. He created the tribes and placed me in the best, subdivided them into clans and placed me in the best one. I'm the best of you, both in clan and in spirit." The Prophet (peace be upon him) is saying that he is not simply a good person among a group of evil people. He said, "I am the best, but I'm also from among the best" — meaning that his clan and his tribe are the most noble.
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also says: "Verily Allah granted eminence to Kinānah from amongst the descendants of Ismāʿīl, and He granted eminence to the Quraysh from among Kinānah, and He granted eminence to Banū Hāshim among Quraysh, and He granted me eminence from the tribe of Banū Hāshim." So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the greatest from among Banū Hāshim, and Banū Hāshim were the most noble among Quraysh, and Quraysh were the most noble among Kinānah, and Kinānah was the most noble of the descendants of Ismāʿīl.
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says in another hadith: "I was the product of true marriage, not fornication, from Ādam right on up to when my father and my mother had me. I was not at all tainted by the fornication of Jāhiliyyah." In the time of Jāhiliyyah, because of the corruption and lewdness that occurs when people are far away from the true message, their hearts become perverted, and a lot of immoral acts occur among the people. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is saying that even though part of his ancestry lived in those eras, in those times, he was a product of marriage all the way up to Ādam. So there isn't any of his ancestors who had a relationship of zinā — it is all through marriage all the way to Ādam (peace be upon him), and that is something that Allah has granted to Muhammad (peace be upon him). It was all through true marriage. In short, the lineage of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), from him all the way up to Ādam (peace be upon him), was a product of marriage.