It is also established that he said: “Do not name your boy Yasār, Rabāh, Najīh, or Aflah, for you may ask, ‘Is he there (1)?’ When he is absent, the answer will be, ‘No’” (2).
It is established that he changed the name of Āsiyah, saying: “You are Jāmilah” (3).
Juwayriyah’s name had been Barrah, but the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, changed it to Juwayriyah (4).
Zaynab bint Umm Salamah said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade giving this name, saying: “Do not declare yourselves righteous; Allah knows best who among you is righteous” (5).
He changed Asram’s name to Zurʿah (6), and Abū al-Hakam’s to Abū Shurayh (7). He also changed the name of Hazn, Saʿīd’s grandfather (8), to Sahl. But he refused, saying: “Sahl (level ground) is trodden upon and treated with contempt” (9).
(1) The printed edition reads “a-thammata,” contrary to the manuscripts, the transmitted wording, and Arabic usage: thamma (“there”) may take an appended hā, but not tā. The forms thumma and thummata (“then”) are used only as conjunctions.
(2) Narrated by Muslim (no. 2137/12) from Samura ibn Jundab, may Allah be pleased with him.
(3) Narrated by Muslim (no. 2139) from Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both.
(4) Narrated by Muslim (no. 2140) from Ibn Abbās, may Allah be pleased with them both.
(5) Narrated by Muslim (no. 2142/19).
(6) Narrated by Abū Dāwūd (no. 4954) from Usāma ibn Akhdarī, may Allah be pleased with him. Al-Hākim graded it authentic (4/276), al-Nawawī graded it sound in al-Adhkār (p. 292), and al-Albānī judged its chain of transmission to be good in Takhrīj al-Kalim al-Tayyib (p. 164).
(7) Narrated by Abū Dāwūd (no. 4955) and al-Nasā’ī (no. 5387) from Hāni’, may Allah be pleased with him. Ibn Hibbān (no. 504) and al-Albānī in al-Irwā’ (8/237) graded it authentic.
(8) The printed edition adds “ibn al-Musayyab” after this; these words are absent from the manuscripts.
(9) Narrated by Abū Dāwūd (no. 6190). It continues: Saīd said, “I thought that roughness would afflict us thereafter.” Its chain of transmission is authentic. Al-Bukhārī also narrated it (nos. 6190, 6193), but instead of “Sahl (level ground) is trodden upon and treated with contempt …,” his version reads: “I will not change a name my father gave me.” Ibn al-Musayyab said, “Roughness has remained among us ever since.”