Abu Salamah ibn Abd al-Asad

Abu Salama Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Asad al-Makhzumi (died 4 AH / 625 CE) was among the very first converts to Islam, a foster brother of the Prophet ﷺ and one of the early emigrants who sacrificed everything for the faith. He was married to Umm Salama, one of the women who would later become a wife of the Prophet ﷺ and one of the Mothers of the Believers.

Abu Salama embraced Islam extremely early, in the very first wave of believers. He was the first or among the very first to emigrate to Abyssinia with his wife Umm Salama when Quraysh persecuted the early Muslim community. They made the dangerous journey to seek refuge under the Christian king the Negus, and Abu Salama was among those whose faith and endurance in that first migration established the pattern for the later Hijra to Medina.

He returned to Mecca and later made the Hijra to Medina. He participated in the Battle of Badr and Uhud. At Uhud he was wounded, and the wound did not heal completely. He died in Medina in 4 AH from complications related to his wound, leaving his wife Umm Salama and several children. Before dying he made a supplication the Prophet ﷺ had taught him, asking Allah to grant his family someone better than him.

The Prophet ﷺ himself came to close his eyes at the moment of death and prayed over him. Allah answered his prayer: the Prophet ﷺ himself proposed marriage to Umm Salama, and she became one of the most learned and respected of the Prophet's wives. Abu Salama died as one of the honored early companions, his sacrifice and emigration remembered in the earliest layers of Islamic history.