Ibn Isḥāq said: My father related to me from Salamah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Abī Salamah, from his grandmother Umm Salamah, who said:

When Abū Salamah finally resolved to leave for Madinah, he saddled his camel for me, seated me upon it, and placed our little boy, Salamah ibn Abī Salamah, in my lap. He then set out, leading the camel on which I rode.

The men of Banū al-Mughīrah saw him and rose up against him, saying, “As for yourself, you have managed to escape us—but this woman of ours? Do you imagine we will let you travel about the land with her?” They snatched the camel’s halter from his hand and took me away from him.

At that, Banū ʿAbd al-Asad—the clan of Abū Salamah—became enraged and said, “By Allah, we will not leave our son with her now that you have torn her from our kinsman!” They tugged at my son Salamah between them until they dislocated his arm; Banū ʿAbd al-Asad carried him off, Banū al-Mughīrah kept me with them, and my husband Abū Salamah went on to Madinah.

Thus I was parted from my husband and my child.

Every morning I would go out to al-Abṭaḥ, sit there, and weep until evening—this went on for a year, or close to a year—until one day a cousin of mine, a man of Banū al-Mughīrah, passed by. Seeing my condition, he took pity on me and said to Banū al-Mughīrah, “Will you not release this poor woman? You have separated her from her husband and her child!”

They said to me, “Join your husband if you wish.” Banū ʿAbd al-Asad then returned my son to me.

I saddled my camel, placed my boy in my lap, and set out for Madinah seeking my husband. No creature of Allah was with me. [I said to myself, “I will rely on whomever I meet along the way until I reach my husband.”]

When I reached al-Tanʿīm, I met ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah of Banū ʿAbd al-Dār. He asked, “Where are you going, daughter of Abū Umayyah?”

“I am heading to my husband in Madinah,” I replied.

“And have you no one with you?” he asked.

“No one is with me,” I said, “except Allah—and this son of mine.”

He said, “By Allah, you shall not be left alone.” He took hold of the camel’s lead rope and set off with me at a brisk pace. By Allah, I never travelled with an Arab man who was nobler than he. Whenever we reached a stopping place, he would make the camel kneel and then withdraw. Once I had dismounted, he would approach, unload the camel, tether it to a tree, and then move away to rest beneath another tree.

When it was time to depart again, he would bring the camel forward, saddle it, withdraw, and say, “Mount.” After I had mounted and was firmly seated, he would return, take hold of the lead, and guide me to the next halt. He continued in this manner until he brought me to Madinah.

When he saw the settlement of Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf at Qubāʾ, he said, “Your husband is in this village”—Abū Salamah had been staying there—“enter it with Allah’s blessing.” He then turned back and returned to Mecca.

Umm Salamah used to say, “I know of no household in Islam that suffered what the family of Abū Salamah suffered, and I have never seen a companion nobler than ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah.”