When Abū Bakr was chosen as caliph, a signet was engraved for him. Its inscription was set out in three lines:

“Muhammad”
—one line—
“Messenger”
—second line—
“Allah”
—third line.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh (1) said: Aḥmad (2) further related to me—al-Anṣārī narrated to us, my father told me, from Thumāmah, from Anas—who said:

“The Prophet’s ﷺ ring remained in his hand, then in the hand of Abū Bakr after him (3), and then in the hand of ʿUmar after Abū Bakr.

“When ʿUthmān’s turn came, he was sitting by the well of Aris. He pulled out the ring and began fiddling with it until it slipped and fell in. We stayed with ʿUthmān for three days, drawing up the water of the well, but we could not find it.”

As for the report transmitted by al-Tirmidhī in al-Shamāʾil (4)—related by Qutaybah, from Abū ʿAwanah, from Abū Bishr, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ fashioned a silver ring which he used only for sealing and did not wear, it is an exceedingly isolated (gharīb) ḥadīth.

In the Sunan collections (5) there is also a report from Ibn Jurayj, through al-Zuhrī, from Anas, who said: “Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered the privy he would remove his ring.”

Mention of His Sword ﷺ

Imām Aḥmad (6) said: Suraij (7) narrated to us; Ibn Abī Zinād narrated to us, from his father, from the blind man ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah ibn Masʿūd, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

“On the Day of Badr the Messenger of Allah ﷺ took his sword Dhu’l-Faqār as an extra share of booty for himself. It was with that very sword that he received a vision on the Day of Uḥud. He said: ‘I saw a crack in my sword Dhu’l-Faqār, and I interpreted it as a breach that will occur among you. I saw myself riding behind a ram, and I interpreted it as the ram—the leader—of the battalion. I saw myself in a strong coat of mail, and I interpreted it as Madinah. I saw cows being slaughtered, and—by Allah—cows signify good, cows signify good.’ Events unfolded exactly as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had foretold.”

Al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah (8) also recorded this narration through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Zinād from his father.