my lineage

Several years ago, while i was in Pakistan visiting my relatives, i was shown a book that contained the lineages of the various prominant families of Badaun, India. It contained the lineage of my paternal grandfather's Siddiqui family, and my maternal grandfather's Abbasi family. As i was trying to find sources of inspiration for naming my unborn baby boy, i remembered that i had a copies of the lineages. maybe they had some good names.



While going through them I was thinking about how the knowledge of ones lineage has slowly become irrelevent. My mother mentioned a time in Badaun when, at the tail end of marriage processions, the barber would be reciting the lineage of the family. If the prospective bride or groom could not provide a respectable lineage there would be no marriage.



Now if that's not an incentive to forge a lineage, then i don't know what is. But, I'm sure they had means of determining if it was legitimate since so much pride and honor was at stake. And of course, since the only way to be sure was to marry in the extended family, thats what they did most often. I was told by an uncle that Siddiqui's married Siddiqui's. This does not mean first cousins, according to the lineages that i saw, Siddiqui's have been in Badaun since the turkish conquest in the 1200's. My paternal grandmother(dadi) and my paternal grandfather(dada) were both Siddiqui's, I've seen both of the lineages and they meet about 8 generations up.



But these traditions started coming to an end after the partition. Many muslims left Badaun, And have have lost touch with the knowledge of their forefathers. Not to mention the changes in society that place less value on lineage then in the past. My own father had little knowledge of this stuff growing up in pakistan. He moved to the US and we grew up even more distant.

We've also decided that we can find our own marriage partners. My father had no priority of marrying into Siddiquis. Both of my sisters have married outside of the family. It happened by chance that my wife is half Siddiqui.


So what about my lineage... regardless of whether it is authentic or not, it exists. and, my interest in it probably grew out of the search for identity and self worth that children of all minorities go through. how cool would it be if its true that i am a direct desendent of the closest companion of prophet Muhammad, the first khalifa. And that my name is not based on his city of birth or residence (Makki), or his tribe (Qureshi), or his clan (Taymi), but was a title that was given to him by the Prophet (as-Siddiq). and I have determined that since I have tracked down this information, I now have the responsibility to pass it on to the next generation of my family here in america. To tell my kids what i wish ad been told to me: "You are not the person that is ridiculed in school. They don't know you. But you know who you really are, right? You are Maha! You are a Siddiqui! You are a Muslim! Be proud of it!"