A Trusted Man of Quraysh

His name was 'Abdullah ibn 'Uthman, and his father was known as Abu Quhafah. He belonged to Banu Taym, a clan of Quraysh whose line meets the Prophet's ﷺ at their common ancestor Murrah ibn Ka'b. He was born about two years after the Year of the Elephant, a little younger than the Prophet ﷺ, and his mother, Umm al-Khayr Salma bint Sakhr, was also of Banu Taym. He was widely called 'Atiq; the biographers give different explanations for the name.

He grew into a cloth merchant of means, gentle in manner and easy to approach, and Quraysh valued him as an expert in their lineages; the Prophet ﷺ would later send the poet Hassan ibn Thabit to learn the genealogy of Quraysh from him (Sahih Muslim). The biographers also report that even before Islam he kept away from wine and never bowed to an idol.

Years later, when persecution drove him to set out from Makkah, the tribal chief Ibn al-Daghinah met him on the road and would not let such a man leave: "A man like you does not go out, nor is he driven out. You give to the destitute, keep the ties of kinship, carry the burdens of the weak, honour the guest and stand by people in true hardship" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3905). They were almost the same words Khadijah had used to describe the Prophet ﷺ himself.