Chief of the Prophets

Chief of the Prophets — Page 24

Chapter Two 24 The Custody of the Ka‘bah Ishmael as was married to the daughter of Maā bin ‘Amr, the chieftain of the Jurham tribe, and had twelve sons from her, Kedar 1 being the youngest of them. Kedar’s descendents mostly settled in Arabia, Quraish being his descendents. During the lifetime of Ishmael as and his elder son Nebaioth, the custody of the Ka‘bah remained with their family. But afterwards, it was handed over to Maā bin ‘Amr, Ishmael’s father-in-law and the chieftain of the Jurham tribe. After a long time, Banū Khuzā‘ah, which belonged to a branch of Banū Qaḥṭān, appropriated the custody. It is said that when ‘Amr bin Ḥārith, the chieftain of the Jurham tribe left Makkah, he buried all the national treasures in the Well of Zamzam and leveled it. Hundreds of years later, ‘Abdul-Muṭṭalib, the grandfather of Muḥammad sa , discovered it after a long quest and revived the Well of Zamzam. The Arrival of Idols in the Ka‘bah ‘Amr bin Luḥayy was a chieftain of the Banū Khuzā‘ah. He was greatly impressed upon seeing the Syrians worshipping idols, and desired to have similar idols in the Ka‘bah, the religious center of the Arabs. He brought several idols and set them up in the close proximity of the Ka‘bah, 2 and slowly the number of idols in the Ka‘bah increased to 360. It became a temple of idolaters, Three hundred sixty idols were worshipped there. 3 1 According to Sīrat Khātamun-Nabiyyīn and the Bible, Kedar was the second son of Ishmael as. [Publisher] 2 Ibni Hishām. 3 Musaddas Hāli, a famous poem of Maulana Alṭaf Ḥussain Hālī (1837–1914) about the rise and fall of Islam. [Publisher]