At a glance
- Roles
- Merchant
- Era
- The Prophetic Era · Pre-Islamic Arabia
- Region
- Arabia
- Identifiers
- Wikidata
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.
Life in time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Family, marriage and kinshipSects and schools
Place in the story
- ProtectortowardMuhammad · c. 578 CE – c. 619 CEHistorical
- Family of the ProphetTradition
Other (debated)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Abu Talib was the Prophet ﷺ's uncle and raised him after his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib died while he was still a boy. The Prophet loved him deeply, and Abu Talib shielded him from Quraysh's harm through the years of the call until he died around 619 CE. Muslims agree on his goodness and differ on his Islam.
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the Prophet ﷺ's uncle and Ali's father, was the chief of Banu Hashim in Mecca. He took in the orphaned Prophet after his grandfather's death around 578 CE — the famous accounts take the boy with him on trade journeys to Syria — then remained his protector when the call was declared: the sira records him defending his nephew against Quraysh's delegations demanding him, and sharing the Muslims' three-year blockade in the quarter of Abu Talib. He died around 619 CE in the Year of Sorrow, the year Khadija also died. His faith is the oldest dispute in the books: the Shia hold he became Muslim and ascribe to him poetry of support; Sunnis read his protection as kinship loyalty and cite the accounts of his dying on his fathers' way.
Storytellers (10–12) read the Explorers text, then cross to the Scholars text.
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim — his name Abd Manaf — was the Prophet ﷺ's uncle, who fostered him after Abd al-Muttalib's death about 578 CE in fulfilment of his father's will; the boy grew in his care and accompanied him on the Busra journey of the Bahira the monk accounts. He became chief of Banu Hashim and shielded his nephew through all the years of the call: the sira records his rebuttals of Quraysh's delegations demanding or complaining of the Prophet, his carrying Banu Hashim and al-Muttalib into the quarter of Abu Talib for the three-year boycott, and the poetry of support ascribed to him. He died about year ten of the mission (619 CE), the Year of Sorrow. His faith is the oldest sectarian dispute of the memory: the Shia affirm his Islam on his defense and the poems ascribed to him; Sunnis distinguish protection from belief on the reports of his dying on his fathers' way and the Two Sandals hadith of the two Sahihs — historians reading the quarrel itself as a mirror of kinship and call in Mecca.
Summary
Life
A son of Abd al-Muttalib 1, he took the boy Muhammad into his household after his grandfather's death, took him on trading journeys to Syria, and witnessed his marriage within his household's circle. When Muhammad proclaimed his call and Quraysh turned against him, Abu Talib placed his clan's protection behind his nephew. The sources place him in Mecca's old religion, and he stood with Muhammad through the boycott of Banu Hashim 1.
He died about 619 CE in the same season that Khadija died. That was the Year of Sorrow, after which the Prophet's position in Mecca became narrow and he began to look for shelter 2.
Legacy
His shield made the Prophet's survival possible. What was in his heart became the test on which the two communities read the same evidence differently.
For young visitors
When the Prophet's grandfather died, his uncle Abu Talib took him in and protected him for forty years, even at great cost.
In the Prophet's family chapter (The Sealed Nectar, p.52)
The Sealed Nectar counts him the third of Abd al-Muttalib's ten sons, after al-Harith and al-Zubayr 3 4. When the arrows of the vow fell on his brother Abd Allah, and their father brought him to the Kaaba to sacrifice him, Abu Talib was among Abd Allah's maternal uncles from Banu Makhzum who stood against it, until Abd Allah was ransomed with a hundred camels (Abd al-Muttalib's vow and the lots) 3 5.
Guardian of his nephew (The Sealed Nectar, p.58)
Before he died, Abd al-Muttalib entrusted his grandson Muhammad to the care of Abu Talib, who was the full brother of the boy's father Abd Allah 6 7 8. Abu Talib carried out his nephew's rights in the fullest way. He took him into the circle of his own children, placed him before them, and gave him special honour and esteem. For over forty years he upheld him, extended his protection over him, and befriended and quarrelled on his behalf (Abd al-Muttalib's death and Abu Talib's guardianship) 6. Among the stories of that guardianship is what Ibn Asakir relates of Abu Talib seeking rain through the boy when the valley had dried up (the rain prayer). He alluded to this in his poetry, about the fair one through whose face the clouds are sought 6 9.
When he saw the Prophet and Ali praying (The Sealed Nectar, p.77)
Ibn Hisham mentions that Abu Talib once saw the Prophet and Ali praying during the days of the secret call. He spoke to them about it, and when he understood the matter, he told them to remain steadfast 10 11.
His death (The Sealed Nectar, pp.115–116)
He died in Rajab of the tenth year of the mission, according to the book's preferred dating. At his death the Prophet invited him to say "There is no god but God," but he refused. A verse was revealed about asking forgiveness for him (The death of Abu Talib) 12 13.
Overview
Abu Talib b. 'Abd al-Muttalib b. Hashim, whose name was 'Abd Manaf, was the uncle and guardian of Muhammad. The unsigned Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry says that he inherited from his father the offices of siqaya and rifada, providing water and food for pilgrims. 14
Chief of Hashim
He fell into debt and surrendered the siqaya and rifada to al-'Abbas, but he remained chief of the clan of Hashim, and their quarter of the town was called the shi'b of Abu Talib. When 'Abd al-Muttalib died he looked after Muhammad, and is said to have taken him on trading journeys to Syria. 14
The boycott and his death
He continued to protect Muhammad when he came forward as a prophet, even when most of the other clans of Quraysh boycotted Hashim and al-Muttalib. He died shortly after the end of the boycott, about 619, and was probably succeeded as chief by his brother Abu Lahab. His sons by Fatima bint Asad (may God be pleased with her) b. Hashim, 'Ali, who is said to have been brought up by Muhammad, and Ja'far became Muslims; Talib fought against Muhammad at Badr. The article notes that whether Abu Talib himself was a Muslim was much discussed in connection with the fate of those who lived before Muhammad's mission. 14
From Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lectures on Sharh Kitab al-Fawa'id
The Sheikh cites a narration that the lightest punishment in the Fire will be for Abu Talib, placed in the least severe part of the Fire, with his brain boiling (needs_source: narration whose source the lecture does not name). 15
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Opinions on the question
The question: Did Abu Talib die as a Muslim, and how are the reports on this read?
First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni view: not yet sourcedMain reference
More opinions (3)
speaker's view (Omar Abdelkafy) viewOther opinion
academic view: not yet sourced viewSecondary opinion
other view: not yet sourced viewOther opinion
Connections
- Sibling of
- al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib· Abu Lahab· Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib· Atika bint Abd al-Muttalib· Safiyya bint Abd al-Muttalib· Umayma bint Abd al-Muttalib
- Born in
- Mecca
- Died in
- Mecca
- Child of
- Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim
- Spouse of
- Fatima bint Asad
- Member of
- Banu Hashim
- Protected
- Muhammad
- Participated in
- The boycott of the Banu Hashim· The Year of Sorrow· Abu Talib gathers Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib· The three years of the secret call· The monk Bahira at Busra· The call to the nearest kin· Death of Abu Talib· Ali ibn Abi Talib accepts Islam as a boy· Last Quraysh delegation to Abu Talib· Nullification of the boycott covenant and the exit from Shi'b Abi Talib· Quraysh's threats to Abu Talib and the offer of Umara
- Parent of
- Ja'far ibn Abi Talib· Umm Hani' bint Abi Talib
People and things also explored
Mecca· Muhammad· Banu Hashim· The Prophetic Era· Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim· Khadija bint Khuwaylid· al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib· Abu Lahab
Sources
- Ibn Ishaq / Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (1955)
- Watt, Muhammad at Mecca (1953)
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.52
- Talqih Fuhum Ahl al-Athr — Ibn al-Jawzi , p.8-9
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham , 1/151-155
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.58
- Talqih Fuhum Ahl al-Athr — Ibn al-Jawzi , p.7
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham , 1/169
- Mukhtasar Sirat al-Rasul — al-Najdi , p.15-16
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.77
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham , 1/247
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri , p.115
- Sahih al-Bukhari , 1/548
- Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 1 p. 171
- Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Sharh Ketab Al Fawaed, episode 4, at 00:58:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
- Madelung, The Succession to Muhammad (1997)
- Momen, An Introduction to Shi'i Islam (1985)
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/abu-talib/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.