When the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised his companions in Makkah to immigrate to Madinah, where they were sure to be warmly welcomed by their new brethren, Abu Salamah was one of the first to take up the advice. His wife, Umm Salamah, reports: “When my husband made up his mind to immigrate to Madinah, he prepared a camel and took me with our son, Salamah, and started on his journey.
He was seen by my relatives of the Al-Mugheerah clan. They came up to him and said: ‘If you want to split yourself from us, why should we let you take this woman of ours and travel with her from one place to another?’ They pulled the camel away from him and took me away.
“My husband’s people were upset by what they saw. They went up to my tribesmen and said: ‘Since you have taken your woman away from our tribesman, we will not leave our child with her.’ They held my son, Salamah.
The two groups began pulling the child this way and that way until they dislocated his shoulder. Thus, my husband’s people took away my son, while my people held me at their quarters. Seeing all this, Abu Salamah left us and moved on until he reached Madinah.
“Thus, we were split, with my husband away and my son with his father’s people while I was with my own people.
Every morning I went out to Al-Abtah and sat down. I cried every day until the evening. This continued for nearly a year. Then one of my cousins passed by me and felt sorry for my plight. He said to my people: ‘Is it not time that you take pity on this wretched woman? You have split her from her husband and her son.’ He continued to plead with them until they relented and agreed to let me go.
Therefore, my husband’s people returned my son to me.
“I prepared my camel and took my son on my lap and started my journey to join my husband in Madinah. I was all alone.
“When I was at Al-Taneem, (a place which is today on the outskirts of Makkah, but quite a distance outside it at the time), Uthman ibn Talhah saw me. He asked me where I was heading and whether I had any companion with me. When I told him that I was traveling alone to join my husband, he said: ‘You cannot be left to travel on your own.’ He took the rein of my camel and led the way. I never was in the company of an Arab who was of a nobler character than him.
When it was time to rest, he would sit my camel down and move away to lie down for a bit under a tree. When it was time to move again, he would get the camel ready and move back. He would tell me to ride. When I sat comfortably on the back of the camel, he would come up and take the rein and drive us. He continued to do this until we arrived on the outskirts of Madinah.
We were at the quarters of the Umar ibn Awf clan at Qiba when he told me that my husband was staying there. He told me to go into that village and left me to go back to Makkah.” Thus, Umm Salamah was the first woman to travel alone to Madinah where she joined her husband after a year of misery when she was separated from her husband and her child. Her plight was just another example of the suffering of those early Muslims who were ready to sacrifice life and family for the sake of their faith.
It is important to note the behavior of Uthman ibn Talhah, who was an unbeliever at the time. In fact, he joined Islam six or seven years later.