Hanif in the context of "Fitra"

Hāshim ibn ʿAbd Manāf (Arabic: هاشم بن عبد مناف; c. 464–497), born ʿAmr (عمرو), was the great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the progenitor of the ruling Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca. At some point in his life before his father's death, ʿAmr chose for himself the name Hāshim, as it was the name God used for Abraham (ʿAmr was a Hanif, follower of the "religion of Abraham"). The narrations from Islamic hagiographists to explain this name change are varied: A narration suggests that ʿAmr was called Hashim because Hashim translates as pulverizer in Arabic. As a generous man, he initiated the practice of providing crumbled bread in broth that was later adapted for the pilgrims to the Ka'aba in Mecca. Another narration claims the name derives from the Arabic root Hashm, to save the starving, because he arranged for the feeding of the people of Mecca during a seasonal famine, and he thus came to be known as "the man who fed the starved" (Arabic: هشم الجياع).

Hagarenes (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαρηνοί Agarenoi, Classical Syriac: ܗܓܪܝܐ Hagráyé or ܡܗܓܪܝܐ Mhaggráyé, Armenian: Հագարացի) is a term widely used by early Syriac, Greek, Coptic and Armenian sources to describe the early Arab conquerors of Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt.

The name was used in Christian literature and Byzantine chronicles for "Hanif" Arabs, and later for Islamic forces as a synonym of the term Saracens. The Syriac term Hagraye can be roughly translated as "the followers or descendants of Hagar", and the other frequent name, Mhaggraye, is thought to have connections with the Arabic Muhajir; other scholars assume that the terms may not be of Christian origin. Greek authors have also used the term to refer to nomadic Bedouin from the Syrian steppes east of Roman Syria, pejoratively referring to the conquerors' supposed descent from Abraham via Hagar. Patricia Crone and Michael Cook claim in their book Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World was introduced by the Muslims themselves who described their military advance into the Levant and Jerusalem in particular as a Hijra.

The Sabians, sometimes also spelled Sabaeans or Sabeans, are a religious group mentioned three times in the Quran (as الصابئون al-Ṣābiʾūn, in later sources الصابئة al-Ṣābiʾa), where it is implied that they belonged to the 'People of the Book' (ahl al-kitāb). Their original identity, which seems to have been forgotten at an early date, has been called an "unsolved Quranic problem". Modern scholars have variously identified them as Mandaeans, Manichaeans, Sabaeans, Elchasaites, Archontics, ḥunafāʾ (either as a type of Gnostics or as "sectarians"), or as adherents of the astral religion of Harran. Some scholars believe that it is impossible to establish their original identity with any degree of certainty.

At least from the ninth century on, the Quranic epithet 'Sabian' was claimed by various religious groups who sought recognition by the Muslim authorities as a People of the Book deserving of legal protection (dhimma). Among those are the Sabians of Harran, adherents of a poorly understood ancient Semitic religion centered in the upper Mesopotamian city of Harran, who were described by Syriac Christian heresiographers as star worshippers. These Harranian Sabians practiced an old Semitic form of polytheism, combined with a significant amount of Hellenistic elements. Most of the historical figures known in the ninth–eleventh centuries as al-Ṣābiʼ were probably either members of this Harranian religion or descendants of such members, most notably the Harranian astronomers and mathematicians Thabit ibn Qurra (died 901) and al-Battani (died 929).