Jurhum had the political leadership in Mecca. Ismail (A) grew up and Ibrahim (A) returned to Mecca to build Kaaba with him. The religious leadership in Mecca was always with Ismail and continued down the line of his descendants.

Jurhum stayed in Mecca for a long time, aroung 2000 years, and became corrupt and tyrannical. So Allah (SWT)  sent on them Khuzza who is another tribe from Yemen settled in Hijaz. Jurhum was kicked out by Khuzza and before they left they did two things. One is that they dumped the well of Zam Zam. They filled it up and erased all of its trace. Second is that they stole the treasures which were inside Kaaba.

Khuzza now became the new leaders of Mecca. The descendants of Ismail (A) have already increased in number and branched out spreading all over Arabia. There was one tribe that remained in Mecca and that was Quraish. They were the descendants of Adnan.

The leader of Khuzza, who controlled politics in Mecca, was Amir bin luhi al Khuzzai and the leader of Quraish, who controlled religious activities in Mecca, was Qusayy bin Kilab. Qusayy was able to unify Quraish and led a revolt against Khuzza. He was able to drive Khuzza completely from Mecca.

Qusayy now combined the political and religious aspects of Mecca. He consolidated all the authority of different aspect of power in his hands. He controlled the guardianship of Kaaba which was a noble thing. He also controlled the provisioning of water and food to the pilgrims. This may be a big deal for us, but for them it was considered to be a great honor; that they were providing for the guest of Allah. Other powers Qusayy had includes the control of parliament and the power to decide war. Basically, he was the absolute ruler of Mecca.

Qusayy, when he died, split these authorities among his children – some with Abd-al-Manaf and others with his brothers.

The grandson of Qusayy, Amir, ended up inheriting from his father the authority to provision the pilgrims of Mecca during Haj. Amir did something innovative; rather than providing with soup of meat cooked in big containers, he started crushing bread into the soup which was an upgrade to the meals for the pilgrims. The process of crushing the bread is called “Hashim” in Arabic and Amir was nicknamed Hashim. Amir alias Hashim was the great grandfather of Rasoolullah (SAW)

Hashim got married from Madina. He passed away in Palestine while on business in Ghaza. His wife who was pregnant during that time gave birth to a child called “Sheiba” – meaning old man. Why did they name a baby like that? The baby had some grey hair at birth. Because, his father passed away, his mother stayed in Madina raising him up.

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