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Qutham ibn Abbas (ra): The Prophet’s ﷺ Lookalike | The Firsts
While Abdullah ibn Abbas (ra) became known for his knowledge and eloquence, his younger brother Qutham (ra) was known for something else: his striking resemblance to the Prophet ﷺ.
In this episode of The Firsts, discover how Qutham, who was raised alongside al-Husayn (ra), the last to leave the Prophet’s ﷺ grave, and a martyr who carried Islam to Samarqand, left his mark on history.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
The Last Son The last son that we'll talk about is the baby of the family.
Being born into that family, you're already like at a disadvantage. All these superstars that are ahead of me, right? Like, how am I going to find my place in this family of Al-Abbas (رضي الله تعالى عنه)?
The one who was like the father to the Prophet (ﷺ), so beloved. Does anyone know what his name is? There's a famous poem about him. Qutham, right?
I think I've only met one person in my life named Qutham, by the way. So it's not a common name, but Qutham is the baby of Al-Abbas and Lubaba and he's a very interesting child.
He is the most resembling of the Prophet (ﷺ) physically from the family. So he's the baby, but he's going to look the most like the Prophet (ﷺ). So I'm going to give you guys a little refresher now.
Which sahabi looked the most like the Prophet (ﷺ)? So you have to remember some names that we covered. There are certain people that resembled, that had shabah of the Prophet (ﷺ), they resembled the Prophet (ﷺ) most.
So who can name some names? Ja'far (رضي الله تعالى عنه). The first person is Ja'far ibn Abi Talib (رضي الله تعالى عنه). In Ja'far, very beautifully, the Prophet (ﷺ) said,
ashbahta khulqi wa khalqi. That you resemble my khulq, khulqi, wa khalqi. You resemble my character and you resemble my creation. You resemble me the most in how you look and how you act.
What a compliment. And the Prophet (ﷺ) sent him as the ambassador to Najashi, to Abyssinia. What better representation of the Prophet (ﷺ) than his cousin,
who resembled him most in his looks and in his character. In his khulq and in his khalq (رضي الله تعالى عنه). So first you have Ja'far, who else do you have? Mus'ab ibn Umair.
So I'm going to hold Mus'ab off for a bit inshaAllah. Let's start only with the family of the Prophet (ﷺ). Alright, so only with the family of the Prophet (ﷺ). So first you have Ja'far. Who else from the family of the Prophet (ﷺ) look like him?
Not necessarily. He's not listed from someone who looks like the Prophet (ﷺ). Anyone else? It wasn't too long ago. Al-Hassan wa al-Husayn. May Allah be pleased with them.
Al-Hassan (رضي الله عنه), from above. Husayn (رضي الله تعالى عنه), from below. Alright, so Al-Hassan resembled the face of the... He looked so much like the Prophet (ﷺ),
that you have the famous narration where Abu Bakr picks him up (رضي الله عنه), and throws him into the air and he says, you look more like your grandfather (ﷺ) than your father Ali (رضي الله تعالى عنه). So Al-Hassan wa al-Husayn.
So you have Ja'far, Al-Hassan, wa al-Husayn. And there is one more from the family of the Prophet (ﷺ). We covered him. He's so interesting. He was one of the most interesting characters we covered.
Anyone remember? Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith. If you go back, we did a lecture on Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith (رضي الله تعالى عنه).
He gets lost because people think you're talking about Abu Sufyan ibn Harb. The very famous Abu Sufyan. Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith was the cousin of the Prophet (ﷺ), who looked exactly like him, and he was the Prophet's (ﷺ) best friend growing up.
And that's why the Prophet (ﷺ) was so hurt. Remember by his abstaining from Islam. And initially when the Prophet (ﷺ) came back, he didn't want to look at him. He was so hurt by him. Because of how much he hurt the Prophet (ﷺ).
So he came to the Prophet (ﷺ) begging for forgiveness, and stood with the Prophet (ﷺ) in Hunayn, and the Prophet (ﷺ) was so happy to have him back. Like his, imagine your best friend and your twin, your look-alike from your childhood,
and your family, and now he comes back to you. So you have Ja'far, Al-Hassan, al-Husayn, Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, and then you have Qutham, who we're going to talk about inshaAllah ta'ala.
Qutham, the baby of Al-Abbas. The youngest child of Al-Abbas. And the scholars will debate about which one of them looked the most like the Prophet (ﷺ), and some of them said it was Qutham. Who was the most identical to the Prophet (ﷺ) in his appearance,
but he was a baby, so he grew up afterwards. So you saw that shabah, you saw that resemblance, more so after the Prophet (ﷺ) passed away, when he had to grow up into being an adult. The two that were not family,
that looked like the Prophet (ﷺ), one of them was Mus'ab ibn Umair, (رضي الله تعالى عنه), and the other one was who? Uthman ibn Affan, (رضي الله عنه). Uthman.
So when the Prophet (ﷺ) saw Ibrahim (عليه السلام), on the night of Isra wal-Mi'raj, he saw him in the heavens, and the Prophet (ﷺ) told his daughter Ruqayya,
that no one resembles your father and your husband more than him. Ibrahim (عليه السلام). Right? So Uthman, (رضي الله عنه), also had a shabah,
he had a resemblance to the Prophet (ﷺ). So again, you have Ja'far, Al-Hassan, al-Husayn, Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, Qutham, from the family, that look like the Prophet (ﷺ), and then you have Mus'ab,
and Uthman ibn Affan to an extent as well. And it gives you some context as well, that the two ambassadors of the Prophet (ﷺ), one to Abyssinia was Ja'far,
the one to Medina was Mus'ab. So two of those who actually look like the Prophet (ﷺ), were actually his ambassadors (ﷺ), when they went out. And that's why in the Battle of Uhud, when Mus'ab (رضي الله عنه) fell,
they thought that they killed the Prophet (ﷺ). Some of the enemies started to cry out, qatalna Muhammad (ﷺ), we killed Muhammad (ﷺ), because they saw Mus'ab fall, and they thought that that was him (ﷺ).
So those are the ones who resemble the Prophet (ﷺ). But here's the thing about Qutham, where the beauty will start to show. Lubaba, the mother,
she had a dream when she was pregnant, that a part of the Prophet (ﷺ) was in her house. Like not his full body, but a part of the flesh of the Prophet (ﷺ). It doesn't say what part, could be an arm, a leg,
but some of the Prophet (ﷺ) was in her house. It's a strange dream. So she had a dream at night that some of the Prophet (ﷺ) was in her house. And so she asked the Prophet (ﷺ) about that dream,
and the Prophet (ﷺ) said, Fatima (رضي الله عنها) will give birth to a child, and you will breastfeed that child with your son.
Okay, so you will breastfeed that child with your son. That child was Al-Husayn (رضي الله عنه). So Al-Husayn was born, Qutham is born,
and they were breastfed together from Lubaba. So they were brothers in Lubaba. They were brothers through nursing. Qutham and Al-Husayn. And subhanAllah, this is one of the things,
Al-Husayn is from the Prophet (ﷺ). He is from me and I am from him. So that's the interpretation of the dream, that a part of the Prophet (ﷺ) was in her house. That the son, Al-Husayn,
the son of Fatima would be breastfed by her, and he would be raised partly with Qutham. So she's gonna come to Medina, and she's going to raise her child alongside Al-Husayn.
And you know, you really start to see like the full circle. Like how happy the Prophet (ﷺ) was after Fath Makkah to bring his family with him to Medina and to start building out like a full family life
for the last months of his life (ﷺ), for the last year of his life (ﷺ), where they start to be around him. And there is in fact a narration,
Umm al-Fadl, being Lubaba, the wife of Al-Abbas, she was nursing Al-Husayn one day, and the Prophet (ﷺ), he took Al-Husayn from her,
and he cradled him (ﷺ), and then Al-Husayn urinated on him (ﷺ). He's a baby, right? So the Prophet (ﷺ), he said to Umm al-Fadl, hold my son because he urinated on me.
So the Prophet (ﷺ), he wants to clean himself, right? From the urine of the baby boy. Like again, you're going to see how fiqh came to us. So she took Al-Husayn, but then she smacked him on the back.
And Al-Husayn started to cry. So the Prophet (ﷺ), he looked at her and he said, أذيتني في ابني, like you hurt me with my son. Like what are you doing? Like I didn't want you to smack him. It's okay. It's not a big deal.
And subhanAllah, that shows you by the way, he said, you hurt me with my son, may Allah have mercy on you. SubhanAllah, what about those who actually murdered Al-Husayn? It takes you back to that. Imagine how much pain that caused the Prophet (ﷺ).
Those who beheaded him (رضي الله عنه) in the battlefield. So this was an incident that was narrated, Qutham and Al-Husayn. And this is where the Prophet (ﷺ) said
that when it comes to the urine of a baby boy, the feeding baby boy, that you can spray it with water. You can spray it with water. The expectation is that it's going to be messy.
And this is where we take the fiqh from this particular incident with the Prophet (ﷺ) and with Qutham and with Al-Husayn. Abdullah ibn Ja'far, he says, (رضي الله تعالى عنه),
مر بنا النبي ﷺ ونحن نلعب that I and Qutham were once playing together and the Prophet (ﷺ) walked past us.
قَالَ فَحَمَلَنِي بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَأَرْدَفَ قُثَمَ خَلْفَهُ So the Prophet (ﷺ) held me and then he put Qutham on his back and he continued to move (ﷺ).
Or he put, he scooped them and he put, it could be either two ways. Either he held them that way or he put Abdullah ibn Ja'far in front of him on the riding animal and he put Qutham behind him on the riding animal.
Either way, it shows you once again the Prophet (ﷺ) scooping up these kids, playing with these children. So he too has this experience with the Prophet (ﷺ). Now the famous poem about Qutham that comes
and this is where you start to see his particular interaction. Remember he's the child that looks most like the Prophet (ﷺ). When Al-Abbas was in Mecca and the Prophet (ﷺ) was undergoing persecution in Medina,
particularly the khandaq, in the time of the khandaq, Al-Abbas was extremely nervous. And remember the goal of what the Arabs were trying to do to the Prophet (ﷺ) and the companions
was truly a genocide, wipe them out. It was to cleanse once and for all. Anything that has to do with Islam, wipe them off the face of the earth. So they surrounded Medina and it was the largest army that the Arabs had ever seen.
Al-Abbas is in Mecca and he was extremely nervous. So there's a famous narration that he would hold Qutham tight. Why? Because Qutham looked the most like the Prophet (ﷺ).
So he would hold Qutham tight and he would say (رضي الله تعالى عنه) حبي قثم حبي قثم My loved one Qutham, my loved one Qutham. شبيه ذي الأنف الأنف الأشم
نبي ربي ذي النعم برغم أنفي من رغم So حبي قثم حبي قثم شبيه ذي الأنف الأنف الأشم
نبي ربي ذي النعم برغم أنفي من رغم So the poem means my beloved Qutham, my beloved Qutham, the lookalike of the one with the noble nose.
I'll explain to you why it says the noble nose. The Prophet of the Lord of all blessings, despite the hatred of those who begrudge him or those who oppose him.
برغم أنفي So it's like you rub the nose in the dirt. That's a metaphor with the Arabs. Even if you don't like it, you rub the nose in the dirt. So he's praising the nose of the Prophet (ﷺ) poetically
while shaming the noses of those who opposed him. And the idea is that he is, the Prophet (ﷺ) is the victorious one and they will be the humiliated ones. And Al-Abbas is holding Qutham tight because Qutham looks like the Prophet (ﷺ).
And then he's waiting for the news to come and a servant came and he told Al-Abbas the news that the Prophet (ﷺ) and the companions survived the attempted massacre of Al-Khandaq and he went and he kissed the man on his forehead
and he set him free (رضي الله تعالى عنهم). So this is Qutham and his relationship to the Prophet (ﷺ) and he has an experience as well. Abdullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله تعالى عنهما) says
كان آخر من خرج من لحد رسول الله ﷺ قثم The last person to leave the grave of the Prophet (ﷺ) was Qutham. What a distinction.
So SubhanAllah, all the children of Al-Abbas are being involved in this. So he was the last person to come out of the grave of the Prophet (ﷺ) when they buried him (ﷺ) and to proceed.
So Al-Fadl was the one who had the last walk with the Prophet (ﷺ). Qutham was the one who placed the last stone on the body of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ)
before rising from the grave. He too (رضي الله تعالى عنه) Ali made him the governor of Medina in some reports when he went out to Al-Iraq.
And he too was a man of great courage. And SubhanAllah you're going to see how far the lineage and the place of the Prophet (ﷺ) will spread. He was one of those who lived a long life as well
as most of the children of Al-Abbas. And he was young when he was born. And he went far into the battles with the Persians and the Romans. So he participated in the conquest of Ash-Sham
as well as the conquest of Iraq and Persia and beyond. And he was known for his sense of dignity. Sa'id ibn Uthman tried to give him a thousand extra shares because of his bravery in the battlefield.
And he said put it in the spoils of battle, I don't want it. He said allocate it towards the Muslims, I don't want it. So he was a person of great integrity. And one thing that I think about, SubhanAllah which is incredible,
he was one of those who participated in the opening of Samarqand. And he was carrying the same banner of Banu Hashim, the raya of Banu Hashim, that his oldest brother,
so Al-Fadl is the oldest, Qutham is the youngest, his oldest brother was carrying on the day of Hunayn. Imagine there was just a few people around the Prophet (ﷺ) on the day of Hunayn. And Al-Fadl was carrying the banner of Banu Hashim.
He was carrying that same banner in the opening of Samarqand. Where is Samarqand? Modern day Uzbekistan, who was buried there?
Al-Imam Al-Bukhari (رحمه الله تعالى). So SubhanAllah, like the history, ya Allah, the poetry of it all.
Like Islamic history, this early history, Allah (عز و جل) crafted out these trajectories so beautifully and they get lost in the pages. Imagine this young man who looked like the Prophet (ﷺ),
who the Prophet (ﷺ) used to hold close, who was the last person to rise from the grave of the Prophet (ﷺ), carrying the banner and dying shaheed,
and taking Islam to the same place that Imam Al-Bukhari would be born, (رحمه الله), the greatest defender of the ahadith of the Prophet (ﷺ),
the sayings of the Prophet (ﷺ), to ever walk the face of the earth. Authoring the most authentic collection of ahadith, of the sayings of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). How did Islam reach there?
So Islam truly, SubhanAllah, was always a labor of the heart, and that heart of the family of the Prophet (ﷺ), particularly Allah (عز و جل) blessed this family of Al-Abbas.
I end with this, SubhanAllah, so we covered Al-Fadl, the oldest one, we covered Ubaidullah, the donor, and we covered Qutham, the one who resembled the Prophet (ﷺ) most.
But I remind you, SubhanAllah, of Al-Abbas, what Imam Al-Dhahabi, (رحمه الله), mentions about Al-Abbas, that Allah (عز و جل) made it so that Al-Dawlat Al-Abbasiyya,
the Abbasid Khilafah, would be the longest empire in the history of Islam. These are the children of Al-Abbas. So Al-Dawlat Al-Abbasiyya are the descendants all of Al-Abbas.
Somewhere from his 15 children are all of the children of Al-Abbas. And Al-Dhahabi, (رحمه الله), says, وَقَدْ صَارَ الْمُلْكُ فِي ذُرِيَّةِ الْعَبَّاسِ وَاسْتَمَرَّ ذَلِكَ وَتَدَاوَلَهُ تِسْعَةٌ وَثَلَاثُونَ خَلِيفَةً
إِلَى وَقْتِنَا هَذَا He says, at the time I'm writing this book, there have been 39 khalifas, all from the children of Al-Abbas, at the time that I'm writing this book.
And SubhanAllah, he says that I have written this approximately 600 years later, and we know that Al-Dawla Al-Abbasiyya, even though it weakened at some times, to a point that honestly it was a khalifa on paper, in some points of Islamic history,
but you're talking about a thousand year khalifa, basically a thousand year empire, that stretched through Islamic history, all of it from the offspring of Al-Abbas.
And the lesson for covering all three of these unique personalities, is that don't always focus on the superstar. Look at what was being built around him.
Abdullah ibn Abbas had a dominating appearance, had a dominating ilm, dominating eloquence. Remember what they said? If you saw him, you said he was the most eloquent of people. I mean the most beautiful of people. When he spoke, the most eloquent of people.
When he went on, the most intelligent of people. You're like, how did Allah (عز و جل) create this human being, Abdullah ibn Abbas? Look at what happened to his brothers. Each one of them found their way.
And Allah (عز و جل) knows best what the contributions were that were not recorded in Islamic history. May Allah (عز و جل) be pleased with them all. May Allah send His peace and blessings upon the Prophet (ﷺ) and his blessed family and his noble companions.
Allahumma ameen. Subhanak Allahumma wa bihamdik ashhadu an la ilaha illa ant astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk

























































































































































































