Abdul (also transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul, Arabic: عبد ال‎, ʿAbd al-) is the primary transliteration of the Arabic compound words: Abd (عبد: meaning servant) and al (ال: meaning the). The letter a in al- is unstressed in its native pronunciation, and can be transliterated by any vowel, most often by u.

Abdul's most common use by far, is as part of a male given name, written in English. Understandably, when written in English, Abdul is subject to variable spacing, spelling, and hyphenation.

The meaning of Abdul translates to: Servant of the.

Essentially there is no Abdul, without the second part when written in Arabic, thus it appears as a component of many Arabic and specifically Muslim names, where it is the opening of a religiously based name, meaning: Servant of God. And the last component of the name, is one of the names of God in Islam, which would form a Muslim Arabic theophoric name.

The name Abdul Masih, (Servant of the Messiah) is an Arabic Christian equivalent.

Shaiba ibn Hashim (Arabic: شيبة ابن هاشم‎; ca. 497 – 578), better known as Abdul Muttalib or Abd al-Muttalib, since he was raised by his uncle Muttalib, was the grandfather of Islamic prophet Muhammad.

His father was Hashim ibn `Abd Manaf and his mother was Salma bint `Amr from the Banu Najjar tribe in Yathrib (later called, Madinah). On his father's side he belonged to the distinguished Banu Hashim clan, a subgroup of the Quraish tribe of Makkah which traced their genealogy to Isma'il and Ibrahim. His father died while doing business in Gaza, before he was born.

He was given the name "Shaiba" meaning 'the ancient one' or 'white-haired' for the streak of white hair amidst his jet-black hair on his head. After his father's death he was raised in Yathrib with his mother and her family until about the age of eight, when his uncle Mutallib went to see him and asked his mother Salma bint `Amr to entrust Shaiba in his care. Salma was unwilling to let her son go and the Shaiba refused to leave his mother without her consent. Mutallib then pointed out that the possibilities Yathrib had to offer were incomparable to Makkah. Salma was impressed with his arguments, so she agreed to let him go. Upon first arriving in Makkah, the people assumed the unknown child was Muttalib's slave, giving him the name `Abdu'l-Muttalib (slave of Muttalib). When Muttalib died, Shaiba succeeded him as the chief of the Banu Hashim clan.