As Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and others have reported, the Prophet’s mothers, the mothers of his forefathers, and their mothers are likewise known, although setting them out in full would be excessively long. Ibn Isḥāq (1) — may God have mercy on him — and the ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (2) compiled this lineage with great precision.
In the entry on ʿAdnān we have already discussed his pedigree, what has been said about it, and the fact that he is certainly of the progeny of Ishmael, even though the scholars differ over the exact number of ancestors between them; the various views have been set out earlier, and God knows best. (3)
We have also traced the remainder of the genealogy from ʿAdnān back to Adam and quoted the poem of Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Nāshiʾ that contains it, all of this appearing in our account of the Arabs of the Ḥijāz — praise be to God. (4)
Imām Abū Jaʿfar ibn Jarīr, may God have mercy on him, likewise discussed the matter at length, with clarity and benefit, at the beginning of his History.
A ḥadīth has come down in which the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) publicly traced his lineage to ʿAdnān while standing on the pulpit, but God alone knows its authenticity, as the ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (5) said: ‘Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ al-Muqriʾ in Baghdad informed us; Abū ʿĪsā Bakkār ibn Aḥmad ibn Bakkār narrated to us; Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Saʿīd dictated to us in the year 296 AH; Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Abān al-Qalānsī related to us; Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿah al-Qudāmī told us; Mālik ibn Anas narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, from Anas, and from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hishām.
They said:
The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) was informed that some men of Kindah were claiming that he belonged to them and they to him. He replied,
“Only al-ʿAbbās and Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb ever said such a thing, and they did so merely to feel reassured. We do not repudiate our forefathers; we are the descendants of al-Naḍr ibn Kinānah.” (7)
They continued:
The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) then delivered a sermon and said:
“I am Muḥammad son of ʿAbd Allāh, son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, son of Hāshim, son of ʿAbd Manāf, son of Quṣayy, son of Kilāb, son of Murrah, son of Kaʿb, son of Luʾayy, son of Ghālib, son of Fihr, son of Mālik, son of al-Naḍr, son of Kinānah, son of Khuzaymah, son of Mudrikah, son of Ilyās, son of Muḍar, son of Nizār. Whenever people divided into two groups, God placed me in the better of the two. I was brought forth between my two parents, untouched by the depravity of the Age of Ignorance. I have come forth through lawful marriage, never through fornication, from the time of Adam until I reached my father and mother. Thus I am the best of you in person and the best of you in ancestry.” (8)