A Chapter from the Life of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم

Hashim ('Amr) bin 'Abd Manaf - The great-grandfather of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf was the great-grandfather of the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم.

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf was the eldest son of 'Abd Manaf bin Qusayy.

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf and his brothers served the pilgrims of the Ka'bah well, although they did not have any share in the offices of Ka'bah. They worked harder than their cousins who had the responsibility for taking care of the pilgrims of the Ka’bah.

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf and his brothers put their claim to the offices of the Ka'bah because they wanted their fair share in it.

Several large families of the Quraysh tribe supported Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf and his brothers.

Their cousins, sons of 'Abdud Dar bin Qusayy rejected his demands to split the offices of the Ka'bah with them. They were also supported by several large Quraysh families.

Both groups made preparations of a war to resolve the matter.

Elders of Quraysh intervened before the two families went to war. They avoided bloodshed between the two groups. This war would have been disastrous for the Quraysh tribe. They decided to distribute the offices of the Ka'bah between the two families.

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf was given the responsibility for providing water and food for the pilgrims of the Ka'bah. Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf had already been working to bring water and collect food for the pilgrims, for a number of years, without any formal responsibility.
Rest of the offices of the Ka’bah were left with his cousins, the children of 'Abdud Dar bin
Qusayy.

Sometime later, Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf became the chief of Makkah and caretaker of the Ka'bah. He always made new arrangements for the comforts of the pilgrims of the Ka’bah.
As the chief of Makkah, Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf organized its trading activities. He started sending large trading caravan out of Makkah, on a regular basis.

Soon, Makkah became the trading capital of Arabia. Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf brought prosperity to his city. His caravans moved safely on their trading routes.

Once Makkah had a very serious famine that continued for several years. People of Makkah were in serious trouble. Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf decided help the people of Makkah. He took 100 camels to Sham (Syria and Iraq). In Sham he got a lot of bread baked and brought it to Makkah on all his camels.

After returning to Makkah, he slaughtered all those camels. He prepared soup from this meat. Bread, which he brought from Sham, was broken into small pieces. Bread soaked in the meat soup was distributed to the people of Makkah. People of Makkah ate to their fill for several days, after a long time.

By chance, soon after this great feast, it rained heavily in Makkah after several years.

Once Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf took a trading caravan to Sham. On the way, his caravan stopped at a market called Suq (Bazar) al-Nabt near Yathrib (Madinah). In this bazaar, Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf saw a graceful lady conducting business. She was trading through her maids.

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf enquired about this lady. She was Salma Yathrib (Madinah).

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf also found out that Salma bint 'Amr was a widow.
Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf gave her a proposal for marriage. She agreed to marry him when she found out that he was from a respectable Quraysh family of Makkah and the caretaker of the Ka'bah.
Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf arranged a feast to celebrate his marriage. He and his wife Salma bint 'Amr spent some time together in Yathrib (Madinah).

Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf left his wife back in Yathrib (Madinah) and resumed his journey to
Sham. He fell sick on the way and died of that sickness.

Muttalib bin 'Abd Manaf, the younger brother of Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf took charge of his wealth and the offices of the Ka'bah according to his will.
A few months after the death of Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf, his wife Salma gave birth to a boy. They named him 'Amir. The boy was called Shaybah also.

Muttalib bin 'Abd Manaf continued to perform his duties towards the pilgrims of the Ka’bah. One day, a person from the Najjar tribe of Yathrib (Madinah), named Thabit bin Mundir came to Makkah for pilgrimage. He was father of the well-known poet of that era Haram bin Thabit. He told Muttalib bin 'Abd Manaf that his nephew Shaybah, son of Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf, was growing up with his mother and maternal uncles in Yathrib (Madinah).

Muttalib bin 'Abd Manaf could not control himself. He wanted to return the wealth of Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf to Shaybah, his son.

Muttalib bin 'Abd Manaf  went to Yathrib (Madinah) and requested his mother to send Shaybah to Makkah. Salma bint ‘Amr agreed to send his son to Makkah. Muttalib bin 'Abd Manaf brought his nephew Shaybah back to Makkah.

People of Makkah mistook him as a servant of Muttalib, because he was riding the camel ahead of Muttalib. They called him ‘Abdul Muttalib. ‘Abd means servant, therefore ‘Abd al Muttalib means Servant of Muttalib.

Muttalib bin 'Abd Manaf returned the property of Hashim bin 'Abd Manaf to his son ‘Abdul Muttalib, who assumed charge of his father’s property and offices of Ka’bah.

Excerpts from the Book Sirat Rasul by Suhel Farooq Khan