present sound proof of the Prophets (pbuta)
and the Ahlul Bayt (a.s) being black in order
to perhaps educate and enlighten some of
the readers.
sprang the noblest tribe in Arabia, the
Koreish (Quraysh), the tribe from which
Muhammad descended."
You are free to ignore any of the evidence
presented, however I believe that it is my
duty to explore all the proof and follow the
example of the Righteous and expose
injustice wherever I find it. Like Imam Ahmad
al Hassan (a.s) said, “I will not stop from
confronting Uthman and exposing him in
front of everyone” Sermon of Hajj. And the
Uthman of today is the White Supremacist.
As we have also discussed above, the Arabian
Qedar were a black tribe akin to the equally
black Nabataeans and these two were in
some way related to the Quraysh, the black
tribe par excellence of Mecca. As Robert F.
Spencer remarks, “It is said that the Quraysh
explained their short stature and dark skin by
the fact that they always carefully adhered
to endogamy.”
In his work, “Islam’s Black Legacy : Some
Leading Figures” (1993) Mohammed Abu-Bakr
includes among some leading Black figures of
Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w)
himself.
Abu-Bakr rightly notes: "According to Muslim
tradition, Muhammad descended in a
straight line from Ishmael’s second son Kedar
(Arabic: Qaidar), whose name in Hebrew
signifies ‘black’. From the sons of Kedar
inhabiting the northern Arabian desert,
Al-Jahiz (d. 869), the important Afro-Iraqi
scholar of ninth century Baghdad, noted in his
Fakhr al-sådan ala al-bidan, “The Boast of the
Blacks over the Whites”, The ten lordly sons
of Abd al-Mutãalib were deep black (dalham)
in color and big/tall (Dukhm). When Amir b.
al-Tufayl saw them circumambulating (the
Ka'ba) like dark camels, he said, ‘With such
men as these is the custody of the Ka'ba
preserved.’ Abd Allah b. Abbas was very
black and tall. Those of Abu Talib’s family,
who are the most noble of men, are more or
less black (såd).”
This report is important for our discussion,
not only because Abd al-Mutãalib (a.s) and his
ten black sons were pure Arabs, but also
because they are also the family of the
Prophet, Abd al-Mutãalib being his paternal
grandfather.
The Syrian scholar and historian al-Dhahabī
(d. 1348) too reported that Abd Allāh b.
Abbās, Muhammad’s first cousin, and his son,
Alī b. Abd Allāh, were “very dark-skinned.”
Alī b. Abu Talib (a.s), first cousin of the
Prophet and Caliph, is described by al-Suyuti
and others as “husky, bald…pot-bellied,
large-bearded…and jet-black (shadīd aludma).”