Abu Hurayra

His Name and Genealogy

His Name and Genealogy[^1]

Abu Hurayra was obscure in ancestry and family. People were very different about his name and his father’s. His name was unknown in the pre-Islamic and Islamic era.[^2] He was known by his surname. He was from Douss. It was a Yemeni tribe descended from Douss bin Adnan bin Abdullah bin Zahran bin Ka’b bin al-Harith bin Ka’b bin Malik bin an-NaDhr bin al-Azd bin al-Ghouth.

It was said[^3] that his father’s name was Omayr and he was the son of Aamir bin Abd Thi ash-Shara bin Tareef bin Abu Sa’b bin Hunayya bin Sa’d bin Tha’laba bin Sulaym bin Fahm bin Ghanam bin Douss.

His mother was Omayma bint (daughter of) Sufayh bin al-Harith bin Shabi bin Abu Sa’b bin Hunayya bin Sa’d bin Tha’laba bin Sulaym bin Fahm bin Ghanam bin Douss. [^4]

His surname was Abu Hurayra because of a small cat he was fond of.[^5] Perhaps it was because of his fondness of his cat that he narrated a tradition that Prophet Muhammad (S.) had said: “A woman would be in Hell because of a cat. She tied it. She neither fed it nor let it feed on ground’s insects.”[^6] Aa’isha (the Prophet’s (S.) wife) denied this tradition as you will read it at its place of this book, inshAllah (S.w.T.).

[^1]: In the name of Allah (S.w.T.), the Beneficent, the Merciful, and peace be upon His chosen slaves. Abdul-Hussein bin Sharafuddin al-Musawi al-Aamily, who hopes Allah (S.w.T.)’s forgiveness, says: This is an annotation included the references of this book. We did not leave a bit unless we had referred to its source. We hope researchers to refer to. I present this work for the sake of Allah (S.w.T.) and may Allah (S.w.T.) make it be useful for the others.

[^2]: This was mentioned exactly by Abu Omar bin Abdul-Birr in the biography of Abu Hurayra in his book Al-Issti’ab. If you read about his biography in other books like Al-Issaba, Usdul-Ghaba, Ibn Sa’d’s Tabaqat and others you will find that his ancestry and lineage were obscure.

[^3]: by Muhammad bin Hisham bin as-Sa’ib al-Kalbi mentioned in Ibn Sa’d’s Tabaqat in Abu Hurayra’s biography and certified by Abu Ahmed ad-Dimyati as in Ibn Hajar’s Issaba in Abu Hurayra’s biography.

[^4]: As it was mentioned by Ibn Sa’d in his Tabaqat pg. 52, part 2, vol. 4.

[^5]: Ibn Qutayba ad-Daynouri mentioned in his book Al-Ma’arif pg.93 that Abu Hurayra said: “I was surnamed with Abu Hurayra because of a small cat (in Arabic, hirra means cat and hurayra means small cat (kitten)) I used to play with.” Ibn Sa’d in his Tabaqat, in Abu Hurayra’s biography mentioned that Abu Hurayra said: “I grazed sheep and I had a small cat. When night came I put it on a tree and in the morning I took it to play with, so they called me Abu Hurayra.) Whoever wrote about Abu Hurayra’s biography mentioned that or something like that. He kept on fondness of his cat and playing with it at the days of Islam until Prophet Muhammad (S.) saw him putting his cat inside his sleeve. This was mentioned by al-Fayrooz Abadi in his book Al-Qamoos Al-Muheet, article of (hirra).

[^6]: Mentioned by al-Bukhari in his Sahih, vol.2 chapter of “Beginning of creation”, pg.149 and by Ahmed bin Hanbal in his Musnad, vol.2 pg.261.