Meaning of “Quraysh”:

The mighty whale

Quraysh is derived from the word “Qarsh” which is used for aggressive whales that can sink ships. They can only be killed by fire and that’s not possible because whales live in the water. Quraysh actually means little whale. According to Ibn Abbas (radi allahu anhu), they were called Quraysh because its referring to the beast in the ocean that eats but never gets eaten, that comes on top but never gets mounted, it takes over but never gets taken over.

Some scholars argue that it is an ironic name to refer to how mighty they are. For example, when a huge bodybuilder has the name Tiny Tim.

A small gathering

Quraysh means “a small gathering”. Several years ago, Qasr gathered a small group of people who were the children of Ismail (alaihissalam) and created the group that became the ruling tribe of Makkah and were called Quraysh.

The ultimate earners

“Qarsh” also comes in the meaning of earning and Quraysh were the ultimate earners in the region.