** - Nobility of Messenger of Allah

 

 

Prophet's Nobility

(Ibn Khaldun Thoughts Summarized)

 

Being part of a Noble family has always been a matter of pride in human history. Nobility or Prestige is widespread respect and admiration felt for someone or something based on a perception of their achievements or quality. Prestige comes into being and decays in later generations just like physical elements and decays and dies like it.

 

Ibn Khaldun proposes that the lifespan of Prestige is about four generations give or take one or two, with some sound logic and examples. It begins with one person who starts in humility and being an outsider and not the part of any existing nobility. He builds a name for himself with individual qualities, hard work, and outstanding accomplishments. The second generation learns from the builder, but he knows less than his teacher. The third generation relies more on imitating traditions which further degrades the nobility, and finally, by the fourth generation, all qualities and thinking are lost. This generation takes it for granted that it is their right by birth to be noble without applying themselves and not realizing that individual and group effort built it. They remove themselves from the people under them, thinking they are above them, and do not recognize the character and practices needed to earn respect. They, in turn, start working against them to remove them and establish a new nobility.

 

There are exceptions to this rule, as there always are, for any rule. For example, the Umayyads and Abbasids lasted much longer than four generations. On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire is an example of 36 Sultans for 600 years.  It will beexciting research as to the reasons behind this long period of maintaining the Nobility and Prestige.

 

Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: 'The noble son of the noble father of the noble grandfather of the noble great-grandfather: Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham.' This saying indicates that Joseph had reached the limit in glory.

 

According to ibn Khaldun, no human being possesses an unbroken pedigree of nobility from Adam. However, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala made an exception in the case of His Messenger (peace be upon Him), as a particular act of divine grace to him and as a measure designed to safeguard his true character.

 

The following passage in the Torah: 'God, your Lord, is powerful and jealous, visiting the fathers' sins upon the children unto the third and the fourth generations.' This passage shows that four generations in one lineage limit the extent of ancestral Prestige.

 

For this reason, it is also said that nobility of Prophets lineage through his daughter Fatima (may Allah be pleased with her) is counted up to the sixth Imam, Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq.

 

 

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