Bought and Set Free

Abu Muwayhibah was born a slave among the tribe of Muzaynah, one of those the Arabs called muwallad: born into servitude among a people not his own. The biographers say the Prophet ﷺ bought him and then set him free.

They do not record the year he was bought, nor how long he served before his freedom. What they do record is that after he was freed he did not leave. He remained close to the Prophet ﷺ and was counted among his mawali, the freed men whose bond of loyalty tied them to his household.

For many slaves of that time, freedom meant leaving. For Abu Muwayhibah it meant staying by choice where he had once stayed by necessity.