ibn Luʾayy ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr ibn Mālik ibn al-Naḍr ibn Kinānah—Abū Muḥammad al-Qurashī al-Taymī—better known as Ṭalḥah al-Khayr (Ṭalḥah the Good) and Ṭalḥah al-Fayyāḍ (Ṭalḥah the Bountiful) because of his liberality and profuse charity.
He embraced Islam early at the hands of Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq. (1) Nawfal ibn Khuwaylid al-ʿAdawī then tied the two of them with a single rope, and the Banu Taym were unable to rescue them; thus Ṭalḥah and Abu Bakr came to be called “the two companions in chains.”
He migrated to Madinah, where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ established a bond of brotherhood between him and Abu Ayyūb al-Anṣārī. He was present at every expedition with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ except Badr—for he was in Syria on a trading journey, some say on an errand—and so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ allotted him his full share and reward from Badr. On the Day of Uḥud he rendered outstanding service; his hand was paralyzed that day because he had shielded the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with it, and it remained so until his death.
Whenever al-Ṣiddīq spoke of the Day of Uḥud he would say, “That day belonged entirely to Ṭalḥah.” On that same day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, “Ṭalḥah has earned it.” (2) The reason was that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was wearing two coats of mail. Wishing to climb a nearby boulder, he tried to rise beneath their weight but could not. Ṭalḥah bent down, and the Prophet ﷺ stepped on his back until he reached the rock’s summit, whereupon he said (3), “Ṭalḥah has earned Paradise.”
He was one of the ten who were promised Paradise and one of the six members of the shūrā. He kept company with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until the Prophet died well pleased with him, and likewise Abu Bakr and ʿUmar were pleased with him. When the affair of ʿUthmān arose he withdrew, and some people therefore accused him of bias against ʿUthmān. (4) Thus, when the Day of the Camel came and ʿAlī met him and admonished him, Ṭalḥah stepped back and stood in one of the ranks. A stray arrow struck him in the knee—some say in the neck, though the first report is better known—and the arrow passed through his leg into the flank of his horse, which bolted and almost threw him.
He kept calling, “Come to me, servants of Allah!” His freedman caught up, mounted behind him, and brought him into Basra, where he died in a certain house. Others say he died on the battlefield, and that when ʿAlī passed among the slain he saw him, wiped the dust from his face (5) and said, “May Allah have mercy on you, Abū Muḥammad. It pains me to see you lying stretched out (6) beneath the stars.” He then added, “To Allah I complain of my inward grief and my outward sorrow; (7) by Allah, I wish I had died twenty years before this day.”
It is said that the one who loosed that arrow was Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam, who said to Abān ibn ʿUthmān, “I have spared you some (8) of the men who killed ʿUthmān.” Others report that it was someone else who shot the arrow, and this second view is, in my judgement, nearer to the truth, even though the first is more widely circulated. Allah knows best.