Ishaq ibn Yahya reported to me from Musa ibn Talha, who said:
“My father was fair-skinned with a reddish hue, of medium build yet tending toward shortness, broad-chested, the distance between his shoulders was great, and he had large feet. Whenever he turned, he turned his whole body.” (1)
I say: He was among the earliest to embrace Islam (2), was persecuted for Allah’s sake, then emigrated. It so happened that he was absent from the Battle of Badr because he was on a trading journey to Syria (3), and he was pained by his absence; so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ allotted him his share of the spoils and his reward. (4)
Abu al-Qasim Ibn ʿAsakir, the hafiz, said in his biography: “He accompanied ʿUmar when the latter arrived at Jabiya, and ʿUmar put him in charge of the Muhajirun.”
Another scholar said: “His hand became paralyzed because he used it to shield the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the Day of Uhud.”
Al-Salt ibn Dinar, on the authority of Abu Nadrah, from Jabir, said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever…"
(1) Reported by al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 3/370; by al-Tabarani, al-Muʿjam al-Kabir, no. 191; and cited by Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah, 5/232.
(2) See al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Tabari, 2/317.
(3) Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat, 3/1, p. 154, relates that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ expected the Quraysh caravan returning from Syria, he dispatched Talha b. ʿUbayd Allah and Saʿid b. Zayd b. ʿAmr b. Nufayl ten nights before leaving Madina to gather intelligence. They reached al-Hawra, remained there until the caravan passed, and the news reached the Prophet before their return… The author will revisit this on p. 136. See also al-Tabari 2/478, al-Istiʿab 5/237, Ibn Hisham 1/683, and al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 3/369.
(4) Reported by al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 3/368, and by al-Tabarani, al-Muʿjam al-Kabir, no. 189, through the chain of Ibn Luhayʿa – Abu al-Aswad – ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr: Talha b. ʿUbayd Allah b. ʿUthman … was in Syria; on returning he asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for a share of the spoils, and the Prophet allotted it, saying, “And your reward as well.” The isnad is weak because of Ibn Luhayʿa. Al-Hakim also narrates it via Musa b. ʿUqba from Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri; see the earlier discussion.