Qusai ibn Kilab

Qusai ibn Kilab ibn Murrah, also known as Qusayy or Kusayy, (Arabic: قصي بن كلاب بن مُرة‎; ca. 400 – 480) was the great-grandfather of Shaiba ibn Hashim (Abdul-Mutallib), thus the great-great-great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Background

Qusai was born into the Quraysh tribe. His father was Kilab ibn Murrah who died when Qusai was an infant. According to Islamic tradition, he was a descendant of Ibrahim (Abraham) through his son Isma'il (Ishmael). His elder brother Zuhrah ibn Kilab was the progenitor of the Banu Zuhrah clan. After his father's death his mother Fatimah bint Sa'd ibn Sayl married Rabi'ah ibn Haram from the Bani Azra tribe, who took her with him to as-Sham where she gave birth to a son called Darraj.

Life in as-Sham

Qusai grew up treating his step-father, Rabi'ah, as his father. When a quarrel broke out between Qusai and some members of the Rabi'ah tribe, they reproached him and betrayed the fact that they never regarded him as one of their own. Qusai complained to his mother after he related to her the reproach he heard, his mother replied "O my son," she said, "your descendance is nobler than theirs, you are the son of Kilab ibn Murrah, and your people live in the proximity of the holy house in Mecca." Because of this Qusai departed from as Sham and returned to Mecca.