By Mostafa Al-Badawi

Whenever the prophet Muhammad—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him and all Prophets—spoke of other Prophets, he began with himself, saying, “May God’s mercy be upon us and upon my brother so and so.” “May God’s mercy be upon us and upon Moses” (Muslim, 2380). “May God’s mercy be upon us and upon Hud, and upon Salih” (Ahmad, Musnad, 21168). “May God’s mercy be upon us and the Brother of ‘Ad,” meaning Hud. (Ibn Maja, 3852; Ibn Abi Shayba, 29228). According to Ibn ‘Abbas, when the Prophet Muhammad—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him—passed by the Valley of ‘Usfan, nearly 50 miles (about 80 kilometers) north of Mecca, he asked, “O Abu Bakr! Which valley is this?” Abu Bakr answered, “The Valley of ‘Usfan.” The Prophet said, “Hud and Salih have passed through it on red camels whose bridles were of braided palm fibers, their lower garments coarse cloths, their upper garments striped cloths, uttering the talbiya, going on pilgrimage to the Ancient House.”(Ahmad, Musnad, 2067)

Since the Ka‘ba, as we know it today, had been first erected by Abraham and Ishmael, it may be that these Prophets made the pilgrimage to the site of the Ka‘ba, just as Adam had done before them, in the God-given knowledge that it was the location where the mercy of God alighted and that the building was simply to mark the place for pilgrims. ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Amr—may God be pleased with him—said, “When Adam was sent down from the Garden, God said, ‘I shall send down with you a House that is to be circled around as My Throne is circled around, and toward which it is prayed as it is prayed toward My Throne.’ At the time of the deluge it was raised up [it disappeared from the material world]. Yet the Prophets still went to it on pilgrimage, without knowing its exact location …” (Haytami, Majma‘ al-Zawa’id, 3:288)

The ancient Arabs roamed the Arabian Peninsula, from the Syrian Desert in the north, to the Yemeni coast in the south. Some of them settled wherever oases, such as wells or rains, provided a sufficient supply of water, as in Medina, Khaybar, Fadak, Tabuk, Yamama, Northern Yemen where the Ma’rib dam was, and Southern Yemen in the Hadramawt Valley and the coastal strip. Other Arabs remained wandering nomads, moving their flocks in the vast Arabian Desert, searching for pastures and raiding one another. The land of Iram is said to have been fertile, abundant in water and greenery. Among the tribes that are known to have dwelled in ancient Arabia before the descendants of Ishmael, were ‘Ad, Thamud, Judays, Jurhum, and Qahtan.  However, another opinion claims that these tribes are also descendants of Ishmael.