Among the virtues of Sālim is what has been transmitted through the following chain:

Imām Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad narrated to us in his book—along with a group—saying: Hanbal ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us; Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us; Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Mudhahhib informed us; Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar related to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad related to us; my father related to me; ʿAffān related to us; Ḥammād related to us, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from Abū Rāfiʿ:

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “Whoever from the Arab captives is still alive at the time of my death is to be provided for from the property of Allah.”

Saʿīd ibn Zayd replied, “Had you indicated a single man from among the Muslims, the people would have trusted your choice. Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq did just that, and the people trusted him.”

ʿUmar said, “I have observed in my companions an unseemly eagerness, so I am placing this matter in the hands of these six men.

“If either of two men were still alive when death overtakes me and I could entrust the affair to him, I would have felt secure: Sālim, the freedman of Abū Hudhayfah, and Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrah. (1)”

ʿAlī ibn Zayd is assessed as lenient (2). If the report is authentic, it shows the high standing of these two men in ʿUmar’s view and indicates that he deemed the imamate permissible for someone who is not a Qurayshī. Allah knows best.

The martyrs of Badr:

• ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith al-Muṭṭalibī;
• ʿUmayr ibn Abī Waqqāṣ al-Zuhrī, the brother of Saʿd;
• Ṣafwān ibn Bayḍāʾ—his father’s name was Wahb ibn Rabīʿah al-Fihrī;
• Dhu’l-Shimālayn ʿUmayr ibn ʿAbd ʿAmr al-Khuzāʿī;
• ʿUmayr ibn al-Ḥumām ibn al-Jamūḥ al-Anṣārī, who cast aside the dates and fought until he was killed;
• Muʿādh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Jamūḥ al-Sulamī;
• Muʿādh ibn ʿAfrāʾ and his brother ʿAwf—their father was al-Ḥārith ibn Rifāʿah of Banū Ghanm ibn ʿAwf;
• Ḥārithah ibn Surāqah ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAdī al-Anṣārī, who was struck by a stray arrow while still a youth.