He died in his prime, in the third year after the Hijra.

Ibn Isḥāq said: He was the very first to emigrate to Abyssinia. Later he returned with ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn when the latter came back from Abyssinia, and Abū Ṭālib granted him protection.

I (the author) add: They came back when they heard that the people of Mecca had embraced Islam after the revelation of Sūrat al-Najm.

Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allah said: While in Abyssinia, Umm Salama bore him Salama, ʿUmar, Durrah, and Zaynab.

I say: These children were born in Abyssinia only a short time before the Prophet’s migration.

Al-Aʿmash, from Shaqīq, from Umm Salama, related:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When you are present at a deathbed, speak good words, for the angels say ‘āmīn’ to what you utter.”

She continued: When Abū Salama died, I asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what should I say?”

He replied, “Say: ‘O Allah, forgive him and grant us after him a righteous successor.’”

So Allah compensated me with someone better than him—the Messenger of Allah. ⦗1⦘

Ḥammād ibn Salama reported: Thābit narrated to us, from ʿUmar ibn Abī Salama, from Umm Salama, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When a calamity befalls any of you, let him say: ‘Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him…’”