Descendents of Prophet Muhammad exist

From Shiah perspective:
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/Imam%20Hussein/Imam%20Hussein.html

More neutral view:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071202064612AA0aY6K

I was told my religious teachers who are of the Shafie Mazab that
there are no living descendent of Prophet Muhammad because both Hassan
and Hussin, his grandchildren died. Initially I thought it was at
Karbala but the heads that were recorded appear to be only one but
verbally it appeared to be two because both deaths were narrated
together.

The descendent of Hassan call themselves Shariff and they should be
the most numerous because not many of them were killed. The descendent
of Hussin have only one surviving son but not sure if he survived the
trip to captivity but some daughters may survive because they were
taken care of by Zainab, their aunty.

Our religious teachers appear to discourage looking up to descendants
of Prophet Muhammad for fear of Shirik as what the Shiah had suffered
in revering the descendants of Ali. However pious Muslims should not
lie or hide the truth.

One possible reason was that these teachers were bribed and threatened
by the existing Muslim rulers who tend to form dynasties, not to
emphasise Prophet Muhammad's descendants in choosing leaders. It is
these fear that led to many of them to hide their ancestry while
preserving their titles of Sharif and Syed.

In South East Asia, they were revered not as leaders but as pious
people whose graves can give good luck. Their tombs were filled with
yellow clothes in order to indicate their holiness. In Sabah, most of
these have the Shariff titles.

If we are really concerned, we can do DNA tests but these tests cannot
really determine correctly complete genertic link. These people who
keep their Shariff and Syed titles are not the only ones who are
descendent of Prophet Muhammad. Since holders of these titles are
those who descend from the males line, DNA test can be carried out
easily and cheaply. Imposters can be easily discounted.

It is important for us to establish these genetic links not because we
want to exalt them but to pay our respects to Prophet Muhammad and to
confirm ourselves that Prophet Muhammad is indeed human with real
families. Those who pretend that Prophet Muhammad did not have any
surviving descendant is only trying to deify him which is strictly
forbidden in Islam. This is the same sin committed by Christians who
believe that Jesus does not have any descendants and therefore divine.

Imam Mahdi will be from the East

Imam Mahdi may look like Rasulullah, i.e. Arabic but he will come from
the East.

According to some hadith it should be from the descendents of Fatimah
but both Hassan and Hussin were killed in Karbala so how could there
be their descendents who now call themselvs Shariff and Syed.

http://www.islam.tc/prophecies/imam.html
Imam Mahdi (Descendent of Prophet Muhammad PBUH)
by Mufti A.H. Elias and Mohammad Ali ibn Zubair Ali

Who Is Imam Mahdi?

Note: Please do not confuse Imam Mahdi with Hadhrat Isa (Jesus)
Alayhis Salaam. They are two different persons, and both will come
during the last days. According to Hadeeth, Imam Mahdi will appear
first, and Hadhrat Isa (A.S.) will appear during Imam Mahdi's
lifetime. Furthermore, only Hadhrat Isa (A.S.) will be able to kill
Dajjal (the "anti-Christ").

The term "MAHDI" is a title meaning "The Guided one".

Hadhrat Abdullah bin Mas'ood (R.A.) says that Rasulullah (Sallallahu
Alayhi Wasallam) said, "This world will not come to an end until one
person from my progeny does not rule over the Arabs, and his name will
be the same as my name." (Tirmidhi)

Hadhrat Ali (R.A.) narrates that Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi
Wasallam) said, "Even if only a day remains for Qiyamah to come, yet
Allah will surely send a man from my family who will fill this world
with such justice and fairness, just as it initally was filled with
oppression." (Abu Dawood)

His Features

Hadhrat Abu Saeed Khudri (R.A.) relates that Rasulullah (Sallallahu
Alayhi Wasallam) said, "Al Mahdi will be from my progeny. His forehead
will be broad and his nose will be high. He will fill the world with
justice and fairness at a time when the world will be filled with
oppression. He will rule for seven years."

Other ahadeeth inform us that:

* He will be tall
* He will be fair complexioned
* His facial features will be similar to those of Rasulullah
(Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam)
* His character will be exactly like that of Rasulullah
(Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam)
* His father's name will be Abdullah
* His mother's name will be Aamina
* He will speak with a slight stutter and occasionally this
stutter will frustrate him causing him to hit his hand upon his thigh.
* His age at the time of his emergence will be forty years
* He will receive Knowledge from Allah.

His Emergence and Rule

Hadhrat Umme Salmah (R.A.) narrates that Rasulullah (Sallallahu
Alayhi Wasallam) said, " After the death of a Ruler there will be some
dispute between the people. At that time a citizen of Madina will flee
(from Madinah) and go to Makkah. While in Makkah, certain people will
approach him between Hajrul Aswad and Maqaame Ibraheem, and forcefully
pledge their allegiance to him.

Thereafter a huge army will proceed from Syria to attack him but when
they will be at Baida, which is between Makkah and Madina, they will
be swallowed into the ground.

On seeing this, the Abdaals of Shaam as well as large numbers of
people from Iraq will come to him and pledge their allegiance to him.
Then a person from the Quraish, whose uncle will be from the Bani Kalb
tribe will send an army to attack him, only to be overpowered, by the
will of Allah. This (defeated) army will be that of the Bani Kalb.
Unfortunate indeed is he who does not receive a share from the booty
of the Kalb. This person (Imam Mahdi) will distribute the spoils of
war after the battle. He will lead the people according to the Sunnat
and during his reign Islam will spread throughout the world. He will
remain till seven years (since his emergence). He will pass away and
the Muslims will perform his Janazah salaat." (Abu Dawood)

According to a Hadeeth, Sayyidena Eesa (A.S.) will lead the Janaazah
of Imam Mahdi (A.S.).

While the people will be pledging their allegiance to Imaam Mahdi, a
voice from the unseen will call out:

"This is the representative of Allah,
The Mahdi, listen to him and obey him"

This announcement which will be heard by all those present will
establish his authenticity. Another sign which will indicate the
authenticity of Imaam Mahdi wil be that in the Ramadhaan prior to his
emergence an eclipse of the sun and moon will occur.

Hadhrat Abu Umamah (R.A.) says that Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi
Wasallam) said: "There will be four peace agreements between you and
the Romans. The fourth agreement will be mediated through a person who
will be from the progeny of Hadhrat Haroon (A.S.) and will be upheld
for seven years."

The people asked: "O Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam), who will
be the Imaam of the people at the time?"

Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) said: "He will be from my
progeny and will be forty years of age. His face will shine like a
star and he will have a black spot on his left cheek. He will don two
"Qutwaani" cloaks and will appear exactly as a person from the Bani
Israeel..." (Tabrani)

According to hadith narrated by Abu Saeed Khudri (R.A.) Rasulullah
(Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) said: "...(regarding the rule of Imaam
Mahdi) the skies will rain down in abundance and the earth will yield
forth its crop in abundance, and those alive will desire that those
who have already passed away should have been alive to enjoy this
prosperity..."

Hadhrat Buraidah (R.A.) says that Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi
Wasallam) said: "There will be many armies after me. You must join
that army which will come from Khurasaan." (Ibn Adi)

Abu Hurairah (R.A.) says that Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam)
said: "(Armies carrying) black flags will come from Khurasaan. No
power will be able to stop them and they will finally reach Eela
(Baitul Maqdas) where they will erect their flags."

from: "Signs of Qiyamah"
by Mohammed Ali Ibn Zubair Ali

More Hadeeth (with references) (contributed by Bradley Bilal).

1) The Prophet (PBUH and HF) said: "Even if the entire duration of the
world's existence has already been exhausted and only one day is left
(before the day of judgment), Allah will expand that day to such a
length of time, as to accommodate the kingdom of a person from my
Ahlul-Bayt who will be called by my name. He will fill out the earth
with peace and justice as it will have been full of injustice and
tyranny (by then)."

References:

Sahih al-Tirmidhi, v2, p86, v9, pp 74-75
Sunan Abu Dawud, v2, p7
Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, v1, pp 84,376; V3, p63

2) The Prophet (PBUH and HF) said: "al-Mahdi is one of us, the members
of the household (Ahlul-Bayt)."

Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah, v2, Tradition #4085

3) The Prophet (PBUH and HF) said: The Mahdi will be of my family, of
the descendants of Fatimah (the daughter of the Prophet (PBUH)).

References:

Sunan Abu Dawud, English version, Ch. 36, Tradition #4271
(narrated by Umm Salama, the wife of the Prophet)
Sunan Ibn Majah, v2, Tradition #4086

4) The Prophet (PBUH and HF) said: "We (I and my family) are members
of a household that Allah (SWT) has chosen for them the life of the
Hereafter over the life of this world; and the members of my household
(Ahlul-Bayt) shall suffer a great affliction and they shall be
forcefully expelled from their homes after my death; then there will
come people from the East carrying black flags, and they will ask for
some good to be given to them, but they shall be refused service; as
such, they will wage war and emerge victorious, and will be offered
that which they desired in the first place, but they will refuse to
accept it till they pass it to a man from my family (Ahlul-Bayt)
appears to fill the Earth with justice as it has been filled with
corruption. So whoever reaches that (time) ought to come to them even
if crawling on the ice/snow since among them is the Vice-regent of
Allah (Khalifatullah) al-Mahdi."

References:

Sunan Ibn Majah, v2, Tradition #4082,
The History Tabari
al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqah, by Ibn Hajar, Ch. 11, section 1, pp
250-251

5) Abu Nadra reported: We were with the company of Jabir Ibn
Abdillah... Jabir Ibn Abdillah kept quite for a while and then
reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) having said: "There
would be a Caliph in the last (period) of my Ummah who would freely
give handfuls of wealth to the people without counting it." I said to
Abu Nadra and Abu al-Ala: Do you mean Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz? They said:
NO, (he would be Imam Mahdi).

References:

Sahih Muslim, English version, v4, chapter MCCV, p1508,
Tradition #6961
Sahih Muslim, Arabic version, Kitab al-Fitan, v4, p2234,
Tradition #67

6) "al-Mahdi is from our Ahlul-Bayt, no doubt Allah will enforce his
appearance within a night (i.e., his coming is very unpredictable and
is very sudden)."

References: Sunan Ibn Majah, v2, p269

Compiled from various sources by Islam.tc, webmaster@islam.tc

Good source of living languanges of Sabah

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=MYS

This is an excellent source of information about languages used in
Sabah.

Unfortunately native speakers will most likely dispute their
interpretations and segregations.

I'm a Simunul and I know that my relatives will not agree to call
themselves Sama, even if it were classified as Sama Southern.

Sama is used by natives in the West Coast, labelled as Bajau West
Coast in that site but these people don't call themselves Bajau but
just Sama.

Kadayan is labelled along with Brunei which is logical because their
difference is minor but I've never met any Kadayan who agree that they
are similar to Brunei or even remotely related.

However, having views from outsiders about ourselves may be
enlightening.

Town localised News and Forums

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topix.net

I came to know about this site when I was looking searching for "Sabah
Pro-independent movement" and I was impressed by the fact that it
shows my posting town, i.e. Kota Kinabalu

When I type www.topix.net, I was immediately forwarded to a news
aggregator portal emphasising on News about Kota Kinabalu.

I'm surprised that there are many bold posts such as the above about
Malaysia that has ISA for just about anyone. Most of those posters are
from outside Malaysia but their knowledge about Malaysia is so great
that they must have contacts within Malaysia.

However some may not be aware that their locations can be revealed so
please read the warnings in the wikipedia article about topix.

Google news only recently introduced Malaysia localised News. This is
probably due to competition from Topix. However I don't just read news
about Kota Kinabalu. I also prefer news about the whole of Sabah since
my home town is Sandakan. Still I may like to know about Sabahans all
over the world so Google News is still useful with its familar search
engine. I'm still not familiar with Topix search engine.

The meanings of Shariff and Said titles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyid

The above are the best explanations of the titles that I've ever
heard. Before this, I only listen to holders of this title but their
explanations fall short.

I used to think that these are meaningless titles but now I realise
that they are very important indeed. We should not forget our
ancestors that easily.

Based on the above wiki articles, it is obvious that these titles were
given to Arabs and their descendents but they were given to male
descendents only.

Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakar was the first Sultan of Sulu on his
marriage to a local Rajah but what was obvious is that he is an Arab
and his knowledge of Islam was good.

Although his father's name is a Syed, he subsequently uses the Sharif
title to indicate that he is a descendent of Hassan, instead of
Hussin.

In India, Syed/Said is used to address any Arab or descendents of
Arabs. Even in Malaysia, there are many Saids but as pointed out by
one West Malaysian friend, these titles were used by those with Indian
Muslim ancestry which means that they may not be directly descended
from Prophet Muhammad. We can easily find out from their physical
features.

In Sabah, I know of one Arab descendent who use the Said title and his
children are all called Habib. They call their children with the
titles Habib but when they grow up, they are supposed to be called
Said but since their birth certificates are already written as Habibs,
they remain that way until they grow up.

In Sabah, as in the Philippines, the Shariff title is more common and
widely quoted in history books. There are also monuments dedicated to
these Shariffs and they tend to be sacred to Muslims which made me
wonder earlier on that they were just pious Muslims who have done
considerable service to the Muslim community.

Because the first Sulu Sultan was a Sharif, most probably these
Sharifs are related one way or another. It is just that we have lost
tract of our ancestors. What remains are just these titles but since
only the male descendents were given these titles, many others have
lost their ancestry links.Those that still keep these titles are most
probably related to Hassan or at least with Arabic ancestry.

Even without these titles, we cannot run away from our features. Many
had pretended not to have these titles because they will be condemned
if they are breaking Islamic rules such as drinking and womanising, so
it is safe to note that only pious Muslims will want to maintain these
titles in order to show respect to Prophet Muhamamd, our revered
leader.

Even if were are not, these titles will keep us on the straight path
and can be used by the community to curse us. In fact we are already
cursed with examples such as the high mortality rate among my uncles
as proof of it. Out of 13, only 5 survived for abandoning these
titles. The reason why my grandparents refused to acknowledge these
titles was their early deaths and therefore the overall poverty of the
family. All my uncles are pious so hiding these titles in order to
commit sins are not the reasons. It is more of a case of humility or
just the early death of their parents.

My wife's case is differnt. Her grandmother was a Sharifah so my wife
should be given the title of Siti but her parents didn't register it.
Since genetic materials can be passed down from either father or
mother, and in fact, Hassan and Hussin are descended from Fatimah, the
daughter of Prophet Muhamamd, it is silly to consider only the Male
genetic line. I shall encourage our children to use the Sharif and
Sharifah titles at least as footnotes. Once it is recorded in the
www.geni.com, it should be easy to trace and remember.

It is not necessary to insert in birth certificates. Many ignorant
Malays have already used these titles as their names instead of just
titles, making it very hard for us to determine their real ancestry.
Many have used Siti, Said, Saidah, Sharifah, Shariff as theri names
but we can always determine their ancestry lines by their features and
geneology. We can even verify using DNA tests.

Muslims in Malaysia, especially Sabah, have begun to forget our
ancestry because our preachers have deemphasised ancestry lines as
shirik and not important at all. It is true that someone's worth is
determined by their deeds, not their ancestry, but it is the
responsibility of all descendents to remember their parents and
therefore their ancestors.

If we disobey these fundamental laws of nature, we shall pay for it in
the end, such as the lack of information on diseases. I'm beginning to
see common diseases among my family such as gastric, gaut, asthma and
respiratory diseases. It will help us diagnose diseases quickly if we
can compile a list of these diseases and their links to our genetic
lines.

Chinese with Wen and Ang surnames are Tausugs

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Modules/Modules/MuslimMindanao/historical_timeline_of_the_royal.htm

Historical Timeline of the Royal Sultanate of Sulu
Including Related Events of Neighboring Peoples
By Josiah C. Ang, PM
Source: Jolo and Sulu

...

1731 - By decree of a Ming emperor, the remaining 300 survivors of
Sulu East King Paduka Batara, now christened as Chinese Wen and Ang
families, were assimilated into mainstream Chinese society that made
perpetually alive a Tausug bloodline in that part of the world

...

So many chinese are also descendents of the Sultan of Sulu.

My classmate has an Ang surname but he does not appear to recall any
of his Tausug ancestry.

Actually we need to know the chinese characters that were actually
used. Different dialects will pronounce their surnames differently.

How reliable is the DNA ancestry test?

http://www.dnanow.com/ancestry.htm