Abû Tâlib was his father's brother. After the grandfather died, it was he who took the orphan into his home.
You read that in The Orphan of Makkah. This book meets him again at the end of his life.
When Quraysh cut off the two clans, they gathered around Abû Tâlib and went with him into his ravine.
At night he moved his nephew from his bed and laid one of his own there, fearing a killer.
They came out in the tenth year of the mission. Those years are told in the book The Boycott.
That same year, after the ravine, the uncle's last illness came.
Ibn Mas'ûd (may Allah be pleased with him) lists the first seven who showed their Islam openly.
Of the Prophet ﷺ he says: Allah protected him through his uncle Abû Tâlib.
Of Abû Bakr: Allah protected him through his people. The others had no one, and the idolaters seized them.
Notice the words. The protection was Allah's. The uncle was the means.
Years later, al-'Abbâs (may Allah be pleased with him) described that protection in one sentence.
“He used to shield you and get angry on your behalf.” A whole life of protection in one sentence.
What the Prophet ﷺ answered al-'Abbâs about his uncle's fate, you will read in chapter 2.
The biographers tell that when Abû Tâlib fell ill, the leaders of Quraysh came to his bedside.
They asked him to settle things between them and his nephew: leave us our religion, we leave you yours.
The Prophet ﷺ asked them for one word, by which they would rule the Arabs: lâ ilâha illa Allâh. They left.
It is reported from Ibn 'Abbâs that the opening of Sûrat Sâd came down about that meeting.
Has he made the gods [only] one God? Indeed, this is a curious thing.
He had been to him a support and a shelter, a strength and a helper against his own people.
A landmark: the two deaths came three years before the departure for Medina.
Khadija too died three years before the Hijra. The two deaths sit side by side.
In a single year, the Prophet ﷺ lost his wife and his uncle. Her story has its own book.
This one begins with the uncle. Who was Abû Tâlib to him, and what did his death change?
An uncle who did not believe stood in front of him for years, and Allah's protection passed through him.
Tonight, name one person who stood in front of you when you were weak. If they are alive, call them to say thank you.