1 of 2 · The Madinan years · Madinah
Safinah رضي الله عنه
Freed on a Condition
His name is usually given as Mihran, though the biographers list several other names, and his kunyah was Abu 'Abd al-Rahman. Some say he was of Persian origin, others that he was Abyssinian. He was a slave belonging to Umm Salamah, the Mother of the Believers.
Safinah himself told the story: Umm Salamah said to him, "I will free you, but I make it a condition that you serve the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for as long as you live." He replied: "Even if you did not make it a condition, I would never leave the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as long as I live." So she freed him on that condition (Sunan Abi Dawud 3932; Sunan Ibn Majah 2526).
Strictly, it was Umm Salamah who freed him, but because his freedom was tied to serving the Prophet ﷺ, he is counted among the Prophet's ﷺ freedmen.
The condition was only what his own heart already wanted: to stay near the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
What good thing would you do even if no one required it of you?
- Sunan Abi Dawud 3932 Graded by Al-Albani: Hasan · Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul Hamid: Hasan · Shuaib Al Arnaut: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad HasanHasan
- Sunan Ibn Majah 2526 Graded by Al-Albani: Hasan · Muhammad Fouad Abd al-Baqi: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad HasanHasan
- Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, al-Isti'abHistorical report
- Ibn Hajar, al-IsabahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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