Abdul-Muttalib

His given name was Shaybah, "the grey-haired one", for the lock of white hair with which he was born. His father, Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf, had married Salma bint 'Amr of the Banu An-Najjar while passing through Yathrib (Madinah) on a trading journey, but died at Gaza soon after, before the child was born. Shaybah was therefore born and raised in Yathrib among his mother's people, and for years his father's clan in Mecca knew nothing of his existence.

When his uncle Al-Muttalib ibn 'Abd Manaf at last heard that his late brother Hashim had left a son, he travelled to Yathrib, recognised the boy at once as his brother's child, and brought him back to Mecca riding behind him on his camel. The Meccans, seeing the unfamiliar youth, assumed he was a slave that Al-Muttalib had acquired and called him 'Abd al-Muttalib, "the servant of Al-Muttalib", and the name stayed with him for the rest of his life.

He grew up to restore his father's authority and became the chieftain of Quraysh and custodian of the Ka'bah, overcoming his uncle Nawfal's attempt to seize his charges with the help of his maternal uncles of Banu An-Najjar. He is famous for rediscovering the well of Zamzam after a vision, and for his leadership during the Event of the Elephant, when he trusted in Allah to protect the Ka'bah from Abraha's army.