The Man Who Crumbled Bread Into Soup

When Quṣayy ibn Kilāb died, these different aspects of authority were split among his children. Some of them went to ʿAbd Manāf, and some of them went to his other brothers. The grandson of Quṣayy — his name was ʿAmr — ended up inheriting from his father the provisioning of the pilgrims with food and drink. ʿAmr did something new in feeding the ḥujjāj. Rather than just giving them soup — they would cook the meat in big containers and feed the people soup, because that way a larger number could be fed — what ʿAmr did was start crushing bread into the soup, so he would mix bread with the soup, which was an upgrade to their meals. Rather than just having soup, they were having soup with bread.

The process of crushing bread in Arabic is hashm. When something is crushed, it is called hashm. So they nicknamed this man, ʿAmr, and called him Hāshim. And this was the great-grandfather of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So he was named Hāshim because of crushing bread; that wasn't his real name. His real name was ʿAmr.

Hāshim married a woman from Madīnah. And then he went to Palestine to do business, and he passed away in Gaza — he died in Gaza and was buried there. His wife became pregnant, and she gave birth to a child who was named Shaybah. Shaybah means "old man." Now, why would anybody call a child Shaybah? The reason is he was born with some grey hair.