that they are superior to all other households.

This is the position of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāah—the adherents of the Sunnah and the Muslim community—who say:

Banū Hāshim are the best of Quraysh, Quraysh are the best of the Arabs, and the Arabs are the best of the descendants of Adam.

This is what has been reported from the leading authorities of the Sunnah, as Harb al-Kirmānī related from those whom he met, such as Ahmad, Ishāq, Saīd ibn Mansūr, Abd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr al-Humaydī, and others.

Another group held that superiority could not be affirmed on this basis, as stated by al-Qādī Abū Bakr, al-Qādī Abū Yalā in al-Mutamad, and others.

The first position is sounder, for it is established from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—in the Sahīh (1) that he said:

“Indeed, Allah chose Kinānah from the descendants of Ishmael, chose Quraysh from Kinānah, chose Hāshim from Quraysh, and chose me from Banū Hāshim” (2).

It is also narrated:

“Indeed, Allah chose the descendants of Ishmael.”

This matter is discussed at length elsewhere.

[Section: The Thirtieth Proof—“He released the two seas, meeting side by side; between them is a barrier, so neither transgresses”—and the Response to It]

Section

The Rāfidī (3) said: “The thirtieth proof is the saying of the Most High:

‘He released the two seas, meeting side by side; between them is a barrier, so neither transgresses’ [Surah al-Rahmān: 19–20] (4).