Hazrat Salim mawla Abi Hudhayfa

A Bearer of the Qur’an

Salim was the freed slave of Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُHazrat Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utbaرَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُAn early Muslim who fought at Badr against his own pagan kin; martyr of YamamahMuhajirun · People of Badr · Early Converts, and so excellent a reciter that the emigrants would have him lead their prayers. Aisha رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَاHazrat Aisha bint Abi Bakrرَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهَاWife of the Prophet ﷺ; the most beloved of his wives and a foremost scholar of the UmmahMothers of the Believers · Narrators relates that the Prophet ﷺ once rose in the night to listen to his recitation and praised Allah for placing such men in his Ummah. 1 Hayatus Sahaba · Vol 3 · pp. 139 — Kandhlawi — the Prophet rises to listen to Salim's night recitation and praises Allah.

Martyr of Yamamah

At the Battle of Yamamah, when Zayd ibn al-Khattab رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُHazrat Zayd ibn al-Khattabرَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُElder brother of Umar; standard-bearer and martyr of YamamahMuhajirun · Early Converts · Martyrs fell, Salim took up the banner of the Muhajirun. Warned the enemy might strike from his side, he answered that he would be a poor bearer of the Qur’an if they did; he dug in to keep himself from retreating and fought on, holding the standard, until he was martyred. 2 Hayatus Sahaba · Vol 1 · pp. 516–518 — Kandhlawi — Salim takes the banner after Zayd ibn al-Khattab and fights to martyrdom at Yamamah.

Virtues in the Hadith

The Prophet ﷺ named him among the four from whom the Qur’an should be learned:

خُذُوا الْقُرْآنَ مِنْ أَرْبَعَةٍ … وَسَالِمٍ مَوْلَى أَبِي حُذَيْفَةَ

”Learn the Qur’an from four… and Salim, the freedman of Abu Hudhayfa.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 3808 · Book 63 (Merits of the Ansar), Hadith 33 · USC-MSA: Vol. 5, Book 58, Hadith 153 · narrated by Masruq from Abdullah ibn Amr