Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Nawfal, from al-Muṭṭalib ibn Abī Wadaʿah, who said:
Al-ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: When some of what the people were saying reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he ascended the pulpit and said,
“Who am I?”
They replied, “You are the Messenger of Allah.”
He said,
“I am Muḥammad son of ʿAbd Allāh son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. Allah created the creation and placed me among the best of them. He then divided them into two groups and put me in the best group. He created the tribes and placed me in the best tribe. He made them households and placed me in the best household. Thus, I am the best of you in household and the best of you in person.”
The Prophet ﷺ thus informed us that whenever the creation was split into two groups, he was found in the superior of the two; another ḥadith employs exactly this wording.
As for his words, “He created the creation and placed me among the best of them; then He divided them into two groups and put me in the best group,” they allow two possible interpretations:
- “The creation” may signify the two accountable species—the jinn and humankind—or everything that lives on earth, with the children of Adam being the best of them. If the statement is taken in its broadest sense to include the angels, the ḥadith would imply the preference of the human species over the angelic species, and this understanding is sound.
Then He made the children of Adam into two groups: Arabs and non-Arabs. He next turned the Arabs into tribes, of which Quraysh was the noblest. He then divided Quraysh into households, and the Banū Hāshim were the noblest household.