His servants and serving-women

The first of his freedmen named here is Ousama ibn Zayd ibn Haritha, son of his freedman and of his nurse Baraka, called Oum Ayman: "his beloved and the son of his beloved." The Messenger of Allah set him over an army in the last days of his life, at eighteen or nineteen, with Oumar in the ranks; when some took offence at his youth, he mounted the pulpit: "if you criticise his command, you have already criticised his father’s; by Allah, he was worthy of command, he was of the dearest of creation to me, and this one is of the dearest of creation to me after him." Abou Bakr upheld the army of Ousama after his death, releasing Oumar only to take his counsel: "by Allah, I shall not loose a banner the Messenger of Allah has tied"; Oumar would not greet him but with: peace upon you, O emir.

And the two Sahihs relate of him: the Messenger of Allah would take Ousama and al-Hasan and say: "O Allah, I love them: love them"; and from Aïcha: "whoever loves Allah and His Messenger, let him love Ousama ibn Zayd"; hence at the register Oumar allotted him five thousand dirhams and his own son Abdallah four: "he was dearer to the Messenger of Allah than you, and his father dearer than yours."

Then Abou Rafi’, the Copt: Aslam, or Ibrahim, or Thabit, son of Hormouz; first freedman of al-Abbas, who gave him to the Prophet; he was a scribe, wrote under Ali at Koufa, was the Prophet’s stay in his cares, married to his bondwoman Salma. He refused a Makzoumite come to collect alms who asked him along to share in it: "alms are not licit to us, and a people’s freedman is of them"; at Khaybar, in bitter cold, the Prophet covered him with his own wrap; at the serpent by whose fangs they had slept: "O Abou Rafi’, kill it, kill it!" Then Anasa ibn Bada, called Abou Masrouh, of the Medinan freedmen, a Badrite by Urwa and az-Zouhri. And Anas ibn Malik, given by his mother to the Prophet’s service from the age of ten, who said of him: "I served the Messenger of Allah ten years, and he never said to me uff, nor why did you do it, nor why did you not do it."