Among them was:

Usāmah ibn Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, Abū Zayd al-Kalbī (1). He was also called Abū Yazīd and Abū Muḥammad. A freedman of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—and the son of his freedman, he was “the beloved and the son of the beloved.” His mother was Umm Ayman, whose name was Barakah; she had cared for the Prophet in his childhood and was among the earliest to believe in him after his commissioning.

Toward the end of the Prophet’s life, Usāmah—then only eighteen or nineteen years old—was appointed commander. He died while still leading a large army that included ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and—according to a weak report—Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, for the Prophet had placed him at their head. When the Messenger of Allah passed away and Usāmah’s forces were encamped at al-Jurf, as noted earlier, Abū Bakr asked Usāmah to leave ʿUmar with him so that he might benefit from his counsel; Usāmah agreed, and Abū Bakr dispatched the army after extensive consultation with the Companions. Usāmah, however, consistently refused their objections, declaring, “By Allah, I will not loosen a banner that the Messenger of Allah tied.”

They advanced to the frontiers of al-Balqāʾ in Syria—the very place where his father Zayd, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah, may Allah be pleased with them, had fallen—raided the region, captured booty and prisoners, and returned safe and victorious, as will be related.

For this reason ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—may Allah be pleased with him—would never meet Usāmah without saying, “Peace be upon you, O commander!”

When the Messenger of Allah fastened the banner of command for Usāmah, some people objected, so the Prophet delivered a sermon, saying:

“If you find fault with his leadership, you already found fault with his father’s leadership before him. By Allah, he was indeed worthy of command, and he was among the most beloved of people to me—and this one is among the most beloved of people to me after him.” (2)

This report appears in the Ṣaḥīḥ from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Sālim, from his father. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (3) also records from Usāmah—may Allah be pleased with him—that he said: “The Messenger of Allah would take me and al-Ḥasan and say, ‘O Allah, I love them, so love them.’”

It is likewise narrated (4) from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—that she heard the Prophet say: “Whoever loves Allah and His Messenger should love Usāmah ibn Zayd.”

Accordingly, when ʿUmar fixed the stipends in the state register, he allotted Usāmah five thousand and gave his own son ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar four thousand. When asked about this, he replied, “He was more beloved to the Messenger of Allah than you, and his father was more beloved to the Messenger of Allah than your father.”

ʿAbd al-Razzaq relates, through Maʿmar, al-Zuhrī, and ʿUrwah, from Usāmah that the Messenger of Allah once seated him behind him on a donkey draped with a woolen blanket as he went to visit Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah before the Battle of Badr.