His merits are exceedingly numerous.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away while he was nineteen years old.
Whenever ʿUmar met him he would say, “Peace be upon you, O commander.”
Abu ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (1) deemed it authentic that he died in this very year, whereas others maintained that it was in the year fifty-eight—or fifty-nine—AH; some even said he died after the murder of ʿUthman. Allah knows best.
Thawban ibn Bujdud (2): a freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. His biography has already been given among the Prophet’s freedmen and personal attendants.
He was originally an Arab who was taken captive; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ bought him, set him free, and thereafter he kept close to the Prophet on every journey and at home. After the Prophet’s death he resided in al-Ramlah, then moved to Hims, built a house there, and remained until he died in this year, according to the soundest report. Some claimed he died in 40 AH—this is incorrect. Others said he passed away in Egypt, but the sound view is that his death was in Hims.
Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim (3): it has already been noted that he died in the year 50 AH.
Al-Harith ibn Ribʿī (4)—better known as Abu Qatadah al-Ansari; al-Waqidi said his name was al-Nuʿman ibn Ribʿī, while others said ʿAmr ibn Ribʿī—(5) al-Salami, the Madinan, was one of Islam’s finest horsemen.
(1) al-Istiaab, vol. 1, p. 77.
(2) Tabaqat Ibn Saʿd, vol. 7, p. 400; Tabaqat Khalifa, nos. 15 and 2710; Tarikh Khalifa, p. 223; Musnad Ahmad, vol. 5, p. 275; al-Muḥabbir, p. 128; Tarikh al-Bukhari al-Kabir, vol. 2, p. 181; al-Maʿarif, p. 147; al-Maʿrifa wa-al-Tarikh, vol. 2, p. 433, etc.; al-Jarh wa-al-Taʿdil, vol. 2, p. 469; Thiqāt Ibn Ḥibbān, vol. 3, p. 48; Mashāhir ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār, p. 324; Muʿjam al-Ṭabarānī al-Kabīr, vol. 2, p. 85; Hilyat al-Awliyāʾ, vol. 1, pp. 180, 350; al-Istiaab, vol. 1, p. 218; al-Jamʿ bayna Rijāl al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, vol. 1, p. 68; Tarikh Ibn ʿAsākir, vol. 3, p. 297b; Asad al-Ghabah, vol. 1, p. 296; Tahdhīb al-Asmāʾ wa-al-Lughāt, vol. 1, p. 140; Mukhtaṣar Tarīkh Dimashq, vol. 5, p. 346; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, vol. 4, p. 413; Tarikh al-Islām, vol. 2, p. 273; al-ʿIbar, vol. 1, p. 59; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 3, p. 15; al-Kāshif, vol. 1, p. 119; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, fol. 98b; Ikmāl Maghlatāy, fol. 48; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, vol. 2, p. 31; al-Isābah (ed. 967); Ḥasan al-Muḥāḍarah, vol. 1, p. 180; Khulāṣat al-Khazarjī, p. 58; Shadhārāt al-Dhahab, vol. 1, p. 253; Tahdhīb Ibn ʿAsākir, vol. 3, p. 381.
(3) His biography appears in Wafayāt al-Aʿyān under the year 50.
(4) Tabaqat Ibn Saʿd, vol. 6, p. 15; Tarikh Ibn Maʿīn, p. 720; Tabaqat Khalifa, pp. 99, 105, 201, 223; Musnad Ahmad, vols. 4/383 and 5/295; Tarikh al-Bukhari al-Kabir, vol. 2, p. 258; al-Jarh wa-al-Taʿdil, vol. 3, p. 74; Mashāhir ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār, p. 39; Muʿjam al-Ṭabarānī al-Kabīr, vol. 3, p. 270; al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, vol. 3, p. 480; al-Istibsār, p. 146; al-Istiaab, vol. 4, p. 1731; Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 1, p. 159; Ikmāl Ibn Mākūlah, vol. 4, p. 525; Ansāb al-Samʿānī, vol. 7, p. 114; Tarikh Ibn ʿAsākir (Paris ed.), vol. 2, p. 218; Jamʿ al-Uṣūl, vol. 9, p. 77; Asad al-Ghabah, vol. 6, p. 250; Mukhtaṣar Tarīkh Dimashq, vol. 29, p. 110; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, fol. 1644; Tarikh al-Islām, vol. 2, p. 188; al-ʿIbar, vol. 1, p. 60; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 2, p. 449; al-Kāshif, vol. 3, p. 325; al-Isābah, vol. 11, p. 302; Khulāṣat al-Khazarjī, p. 457; Kanz al-ʿUmmāl, vol. 13, p. 617; Shadhārāt al-Dhahab, vol. 1, p. 255.
(5) Between two sieges he fell from b.