Haashim
The name of the great-grandfather of the Greatest Nabi صَلَّی اللّٰہُ تَعَالٰی عَلَیْہِ وَاٰلِہٖ وَسَلَّم was Haashim who was a highly respected and revered person. His real name was ‘Amr’. He was very brave, generous and hospitable. One year, extremely severe famine occurred in Arabia, causing starvation. He went to Syria, bought dry loaves of bread and reached Makkah during the days of Hajj. Crushing the slices of bread and mixing them with camel meat soup, he fed all Hajj-performers till they were full up. Since that day, people began to call him ‘Haashim, i.e. the bread-crushing one’. 1
(Madarij-un-Nubuwwah, vol. 2, pp. 8)
Since he was the eldest and the most brilliant son of ‘Abd Manaaf’, he was chosen as the custodian of the Holy Ka’bah. He was very beautiful and dignified. When he matured [i.e. grew up], he was married to Salma, the daughter of ‘Amr, a chief of the Khazraj tribe. His marriage took place in Madinah. His son ‘Abdul Muttalib’ was born in Madinah. While on his way to Syria, Haashim passed away in ‘Ghazah’ at the age of 25. Hence ‘Abdul Muttalib was brought up at the home of his maternal grandfather in Madinah. After he reached the age of seven or eight years, he went to Makkah where he started dwelling with his family.
1Madarij-un-Nubuwwah, chap. 1, vol. 2, pp. 8; Sharh-uz-Zurqaani ‘alal Mawahib, vol. 1, pp. 138
