ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah al-ʿAbdarī embraced Islam after the Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyah, emigrating together with Khālid ibn al-Walīd. At the Battle of Uḥud his father and his brothers—al-Ḥārith, Kilāb, and Musāfiʿ—as well as his uncle ʿUthmān ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, were killed.
On the day of the Conquest the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, placed the keys of the Kaʿbah in his hands and in those of his cousin Shaybah, ancestor of the Banū Shaybah, confirming their custodianship in Islam just as it had existed in the pre-Islamic period. Concerning this, the Almighty revealed: “Indeed, Allah commands you to return trusts to those to whom they are due” (Q 4:58).
Ibn Isḥāq goes on: The first of the Emigrants to reach Madinah after Abū Salamah was ʿĀmir ibn Rabīʿah, ally of Banū ʿAdī, accompanied by his wife Laylā bint Abī Ḥathmah al-ʿAdawiyyah. Next came ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jahsh ibn Riʾāb ibn Yaʿmur ibn Ṣabrah ibn Murrah ibn Kabīr ibn Ghanm ibn Dūdān ibn Asad ibn Khuzaymah, an ally of Banū Umayyah ibn ʿAbd Shams; he departed with his family and with his blind brother Abū Aḥmad.
Abū Aḥmad, though sightless, would walk through the upper and lower quarters of Mecca without a guide. A poet, he was married to al-Fāriʿah bint Abī Sufyān ibn Ḥarb. His mother was Ummaymah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim.
When the Banū Jahsh migrated, their house was closed up. ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, and Abū Jahl ibn Hishām passed by as they were climbing toward the heights of Mecca. Seeing its doors flapping desolately with no one inside, ʿUtbah heaved a deep sigh and said:
“Every dwelling, though its safety long endure,
Will one day be overtaken by misfortune and blame.”
Ibn Hishām comments: This line is by Abū Dawād al-Iyādī in one of his poems; al-Suhaylī adds that Abū Dawād’s name was Ḥanẓalah ibn Sharqī—some say Jāriyah.
ʿUtbah then remarked, “The house of the Banū Jahsh has become empty of its people.”
Abū Jahl retorted, “Why do you weep over a nobody, the son of a nobody?”
Al-ʿAbbās—referring to the Prophet—said, “This is the doing of your nephew: he has divided our community, scattered our affairs, and driven a wedge between us.”