I said: ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (may Allah have mercy on him) was deeply concerned for the freedmen of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; he loved to identify them and treat them kindly. During his caliphate he wrote to Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm, the leading scholar of Madinah in his day, asking him to investigate the Prophet’s freedmen—men, women, and household servants alike. Al-Wāqidī reported this (1).

Abū ʿUmar mentioned Safīnah only briefly and added, “I know of no report narrated from him,” as cited by Ibn al-Athīr in al-Ghābah (2).

Among them is Zayd ibn Ḥārithah al-Kalbī (3). We have already referred to him when discussing his martyrdom at the Battle of Muʾtah, which took place in Jumādā of the eighth year, a few months before the Conquest. He was the first commander, followed by Jaʿfar, and after the two of them ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah—may Allah be pleased with them all.

ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said, “Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched Zayd ibn Ḥārithah in command of a detachment, he appointed him their leader; and had he lived after the Prophet, the latter would have chosen him as his successor.” Aḥmad narrated this report.

Among them is Zayd Abū Yasār (4). Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī states in his Muʿjam al-Ṣaḥābah: “He lived in Madinah and transmitted only one ḥadīth; I know of no other from him.” He narrated: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jūzajānī told us, saying: Abū Salamah—the Tabudhakkī—told us: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar (5) al-Ṭāʾī (6) told us, from my father (7) ʿUmar ibn Murrah, who said: “I heard Bilāl ibn Yasār ibn Zayd, a freedman of the Prophet ﷺ, say: I heard my father relate to me from my grandfather that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

‘Whoever says, “I seek the forgiveness of Allah; there is no deity but Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, and I repent to Him,” will be forgiven—even if he had fled from the battlefield.’

Abū Dāwūd likewise reported it (8) through Abū Salamah, and al-Tirmidhī (9) transmitted it from Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī through Abū Salamah Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl with this chain. Al-Tirmidhī remarked, ‘It is gharīb; we know it only through this route’ (10).