can be divided into two broad categories. The first of them are the extinct Arabs, Al-Arab Al-Ba'idah. And these are the earliest civilizations known in the land of Arabia.
And the Quran mentions some of them, such as Thamud and Ad. These civilizations flourished 5 to 6 thousand years ago. Some of them were destroyed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, such as Ad and Thamud, and others were forced to evacuate or wiped out by war. They're simply... in the textbooks of history.
The second group of Arabs are called the remaining Arabs, العرب الباقية. And these Arabs are divided into two categories. The first of these are the العرب العاربة.
The Arabs who were pure Arabs. And the second العرب المستعربة. The Arabs who became Arab.
The Arabs who learned the Arabic language. There are two figures that are the founders of each of these. The first of them, Al-Arab Al-Ariba, this is Qahtan, or his son Ya'rub. And from that they say we get Arab. Those who were the descendants of Ya'rub, they became Arab.
Ya'rub was the first who spoke the beginning of Arabic. And they're also called Qahtani Arabs. And these Arabs primarily were found in southern parts of Arabia, such as the ancient Yemeni civilizations. Who is Qahtan? Qahtan was one of the descendants of Sam.
Sam is the son of Nuh. And from Sam we get the English term Semite. There's a hadith in Tirmidhi, our Prophet ﷺ said, Sam is the father of the Arabs.
And Yafith is the father of the Romans. And Ham is the father of the Africans. Even the Bible has the exact same thing.
Qahtan is one of the Semites. And of course, Ibrahim is also one of the Samites eventually. Ibrahim and Qahtan are both descendants of Sam.
Qahtan and Ibrahim are not brothers or contemporaries. We don't know when Qahtan lived. But Qahtan's ancestor, Ibrahim's ancestor are both Sam. Some people say that this man Qahtan was actually one of the descendants of the ancient Arabs, Al-Arabal Ba'ida.
So he wasn't just a total stranger wandering in, but rather that some ancient Arabs remained. And other people say, other scholars say, that Qahtan is of the descendants of Hud alayhi salam. Hud, and of course Hud also is one of the ancient Arab al-Ariba. And most likely Qahtan was predating Adnan by many centuries. Who is Adnan?
That's the second category of Arabs. And these are the Arab al-Musta'riba. The Arabs who became Arab. Two large groups, the Qahtani Arabs and the Adnani Arabs.
The Qahtanis... are those who lived in Arabia from the ancient times after the destruction of the first Arabs. So then who are the Arabicized Arabs, the Adnani Arabs? These Arabs are of the descendants of Ismail.
One of the descendants of Ismail, Allah knows how many generations down, his name was Adnan. And Adnan, where does his lineage come from? It goes back to Ismail, the son of Ibrahim. And where was Ibrahim living?
Iraq and Sham and Palestine now. So these Arabs, Adnan basically, are musta'ribah, they acquired the Arabic language because Ibrahim was not speaking Arabic, he was speaking neither Arabic nor Hebrew, it's some ancient Semitic language. And who is Adnan?
One descendant of Ismail. Adnan is a direct ascendant of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So our Prophet ﷺ is an Adnani Arab, not a Qahtani. Our Prophet ﷺ is the 20th grandchild of Adnan. When did Adnan live?
He lived 30 BC because his son Ma'ad was contemporaneous to Isa ibn Maryam and Qahtan probably a few hundred years before him because Ismail marries into the Jorhumites, one of the branches of Qahtan. With this background, the lineage of our Prophet ﷺ is divided into three categories. The first category we know for sure between him and Adnan. How many generations?
20. The second category, from Adnan to Ismail. We cannot have any information from the Jewish and Christian sources about this period. Why?
The Bible does not mention at all Ismail's lineage. So where do we get this information from? From Arabic folklore. And Arabic folklore has not been preserved that well.
Al-Tabari for example mentions seven opinions about the lineage between Adnan and Ismail. In one opinion there's seven people, in another eight, in another another 9, another 10, and another 41 people. Then from Ismail to Adam, we have one source. The Torah, the Old Testament.
Can we rely on the Old Testament? No. If you look at some of the charts printed in the Muslim world, and we find them in our houses, a lineage of the process of all the way to Adam.
This chart is half-fact. half myth and half fiction. As for the fact it is between a Prophet and Adnan. From Adnan to Ismail, somewhat of a myth.
Then from Ismail to Adam this complete we take it from the Jewish Christian sources. If you look at this chart and count the numbers you will find exactly 55 generations between Adam and the Prophet. And this fits in perfectly with the Jewish calendar of around 6,000 years.