Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah narrated:

Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh said: “I was attending the market of Busra when I heard a monk in his cell calling out, ‘Ask the pilgrims: is there among them a man from the Sacred Precinct?’

“I answered, ‘Yes—me.’

“He asked, ‘Has Aḥmad appeared yet?’

“I said, ‘Who is Aḥmad?’

“He replied, ‘The son of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. This is the very month in which he will emerge. He is the last of the prophets. His place of emergence is the Sanctuary, and his migration will be to a land of palm-trees, volcanic rock, and salty flats. Make sure no one reaches him before you do.’

“His words sank deep into my heart, so I hastened back until I reached Mecca and asked, ‘Has anything happened (1)?’

“They said, ‘Yes—Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, the Trustworthy, has proclaimed prophethood, and Abū Bakr ibn Abī Quḥāfah has followed him.’

“So I went straight to Abū Bakr and asked, ‘Have you followed this man?’

“He replied, ‘Yes. Go to him, enter upon him, and follow him, for he calls to the truth.’ I then related to Abū Bakr what the monk had said. Abū Bakr took me with him, brought me to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I embraced Islam. I told the Messenger of Allah ﷺ what the monk had said, and that pleased him.

“When Abū Bakr and I had accepted Islam, Naufal ibn Khuwaylid al-ʿAdawī—known as the Lion of Quraysh—seized us, tied us together with a single rope, and the Banū Taym did not protect us. For that reason Abū Bakr and I were called ‘the two bound companions.’

The Prophet ﷺ supplicated: ‘O Allah, protect us from the evil of Ibn al-ʿAdawiyyah.’ Al-Bayhaqī recorded this (2).

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Ḥasan Khaythamah ibn Sulaymān al-Aṭrābulusī (3) said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿUmarī, the judge of al-Maṣṣīṣah (4), narrated to us: Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿImrān ibn Mūsā ibn Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh narrated to us; my father ʿUbayd Allāh narrated to me; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿImrān ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah narrated to me; my father Muḥammad ibn ʿImrān narrated to me, from al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—who said:

“Abū Bakr set out to meet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; he had been his friend in the pre-Islamic days. When he met him he said, ‘Abū al-Qāsim, you have been absent from your people’s gatherings, and they accuse you of disparaging their fathers and mothers.’

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, ‘I am the Messenger of Allah; I invite you to Allah.’

“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finished speaking, Abū Bakr accepted Islam. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ left him, and between the two mountain passes there was no one happier than he was at Abū Bakr’s Islam. Abū Bakr then went to ʿUthmān (5) ibn ʿAffān, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and they embraced Islam. The next day he brought ʿUthmān (6) ibn Maẓʿūn, Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarāḥ, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Asad, and al-Arqam ibn Abī al-Arqam, and they too accepted Islam—may Allah be pleased with them all.”