Ibn ʿUmar said: “Sālim, the freedman of Abū Hudhayfah, used to lead in prayer the Emigrants who had come from Mecca when they first arrived in Medina, because he was the most proficient among them in the Quran.” ⦗1⦘

Al-Wāqidī reported: “Aflah ibn Saʿīd related to us, from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Qurazī, that Sālim used to lead the Emigrants in prayer at Qubāʾ—Umar was among them—before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived.” ⦗2⦘

Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān narrated, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “One night the Messenger of Allah ﷺ noticed my delay and asked, ‘What has kept you?’ I replied, ‘In the mosque there is the finest voice I have ever heard reciting the Quran.’ He put on his cloak and went out to listen, and it turned out to be Sālim, the freedman of Abū Hudhayfah. He said, ‘Praise be to Allah who has placed in my community someone like you.’” ⦗3⦘ Its chain of transmission is sound.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Numayr narrated, from ʿUbaydullāh, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar: “When the Emigrants settled at al-ʿUsbah, beside Qubāʾ, Sālim, the freedman of Abū Hudhayfah, led them in prayer because he was…"