His Name and Background
Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was the imam, ascetic, memoriser, and faqih (jusrist) of Madinah. He was known as Abū ʿUmar and Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurashi al-ʿAdawi al-Madani. His mother was a slave woman. He was born during the caliphate of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān.
He was among the senior Tabiʿin, combining knowledge, worship, piety, and the character of the righteous predecessors.
His Narration and Chains
Sālim narrated extensively and precisely from his father ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar (d. 73 AH). He also narrated from ʿĀʾishah, as found in Sunan al-Nasaʾi, and from Abū Hurayrah (d. 59 AH), found in al-Bukhārī and Muslim. He narrated from Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb al-ʿAdawi, from Abū Lubābah ibn ʿAbd al-Mundhir, from Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj, from Safīnah, from Abū Rāfiʿ the freedman of the Prophet, and from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib (d. 94 AH), as well as from his father’s wife Ṣafiyyah. Some of these narrations were mursal.
Narrating from him were his son Abū Bakr, Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, ʿAmr ibn Dīnār (d. 126 AH), ʿAmr ibn Dīnār al-Qahramān, Muḥammad ibn Wāsiʿ (d. 129 AH), Yaḥyā ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Ḥaḍrami (d. 120 AH), Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm (d. 120 AH), al-Zuhrī (d. 124 AH), Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥarmlah, Kathīr ibn Zayd (d. 136 AH), Fuḍayl ibn Ghazwān, Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān, Ṣāliḥ ibn Kiyān, Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn Zāʾidah Abū Wāqid, ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawwād (d. 159 AH), ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar (d. 147 AH), ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār (d. 154 AH), and several of his nephews, including ʿUmar ibn Ḥamzah, ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Zayd, Khālid ibn Abī Bakr ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, and many others.
His Character, Knowledge, and Worship
ʿAlī ibn Zayd narrated that Ibn al-Musayyib (d. 94 AH) reported that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar named his son Sālim after Sālim the freedman of Abū Ḥudhayfah, one of the early Muslims.
Ibn al-Musayyib also said that among the children of Ibn ʿUmar, Sālim most resembled him in appearance and character.
Ibn Isḥāq said that he saw Sālim wearing rough woollen clothes, working with his hands, and engaging in physical labour.
A group from Egypt once visited him. They heard the roaring of a camel at his house. Then they saw a man of dark complexion wrapped in rough wool from his head to his waist, with blood and pus staining his hands from tending to the camel. When they asked for Sālim, he told them he was Sālim himself, sat down, and answered their questions.
Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH) said that none in Sālim’s time resembled the righteous predecessors more in simple living and asceticism. Sālim would wear garments worth two dirhams and carried his own loads.
Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik once asked him what he ate. He replied: “Bread and oil, and if I find meat, I eat it.” When asked if he craved it, he said: “If I do not crave it, I leave it until I do.”
Maymūn ibn Mihrān narrated that he assessed Ibn ʿUmar’s house and found its contents barely worth one hundred dirhams. Later he visited Sālim and found him living in the same state of minimalism.
It was said that Ibn ʿUmar loved Sālim dearly, expressing it in poetry, saying that the skin between his eyes and nose was Sālim.
Ibn Abī al-Zinād said that people in Madinah disliked having children from slave mothers until they saw Sālim, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 94 AH), and al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad (d. 106 AH) excel in knowledge, worship, and piety, which changed their views.
Ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181 AH) mentioned that Sālim was one of the seven jurists of Madinah who would consult each other before any judge passed judgment.
He would carry his own belongings from the market, refusing help even when offered. He was known for his humility and refusal to rely on others.
His Standing Among the Scholars
Ahmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿIjli said that Sālim was a trustworthy Tabiʿi.
Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH) and Ibn Rāhwayh said that the soundest chain was al-Zuhrī from Sālim from his father.
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn (d. 233 AH) said that Sālim and al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad (d. 106 AH) were close in narration. Although Nāfiʿ (d. 117 AH) was also reliable, it was said that he did not begin narrating until after Sālim’s death.
Al-Bukhārī said that Sālim did not narrate directly from ʿĀʾishah.
Al-Nasaʾi (d. 303 AH) discussed three hadiths where Sālim and Nāfiʿ differed in narrating from Ibn ʿUmar, noting that although Sālim was greater in status, Nāfiʿ’s narrations were more precise.
Ibn Saʿd (d. 230 AH) described him as trustworthy, abundant in narration, and among the best in excellence and scrupulousness.
His Death and Final Days
During the Hajj of Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, Sālim accompanied him. Hishām admired his austerity but gave him the evil eye. Sālim fell ill and died. Hishām attended his funeral but later imposed levies on the people of Madinah and conscripted many of them, leading the people to see it as a bad omen.
Sālim was known for his strong reliance on Allah. Ashʿab al-Ṭammaʿ narrated that Sālim instructed him never to ask anyone for anything except Allah.
Sālim’s simple lifestyle continued until his death. He was seen riding a worn-out donkey, even when his sons tried to discourage him by mutilating the donkey’s appearance.
Despite his rough appearance, he had a pleasant nature, often telling entertaining stories to his close companions.
Sālim died in the year 106 AH, shortly after Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik returned from Hajj. Some said he died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, others in Dhū al-Ḥijjah. Other reports said he died in 107 AH or 108 AH, but the majority held that he died in 106 AH.
Final Sayings and Incidents
Sālim once refused to ask anything from Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, even when invited to do so inside the Kaʿbah, out of shame before Allah.
He forbade himself from asking anything of creation, relying solely on his Lord.
Sālim’s humility, simple clothing, and disdain for worldly luxury resembled the way of his father ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar.
He once spared the life of a man sent by al-Ḥajjāj to kill him, reasoning that he had prayed Fajr and thus was under Allah’s protection, following the teaching of the Prophet ﷺ.
Sālim was known for wiping his face after supplication, following the practice of the Prophet ﷺ, although the chain for this narration is weak.
He remains to be one of the clearest examples of asceticism, humility, knowledge, and piety in the early generations of Islam.
Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’ by Ad Dhahabi (4/458-467)
