The Orphan's Guardian

Muhammad ﷺ never knew his father, and lost his mother at six. His grandfather 'Abd al-Muttalib then cared for him, and when he too died two years later, the boy passed to Abu Talib, the full brother of his late father 'Abdullah. Abu Talib was a man of honour in Quraysh but of little wealth, with many children of his own.

The biographers report that he loved his nephew more than his own sons, kept him at his side, and took him along on his trading journeys. Years later, when Abu Talib had fallen on hard times, the Prophet ﷺ took his young cousin 'Ali into his own home to lighten his uncle's load.

Abu Talib praised his nephew in poetry. One of his lines was still being recited by 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar decades later: "And a fair-faced one by whose face the clouds are asked for rain, a refuge for orphans and a shelter for widows" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1008).