Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 45
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 45 adherence to the Holy Prophet and his attachment to him were a source of comfort and strength for him. His influence was freely employed in the cause of Islam, and five of the earliest converts believed as the result of his persuasion and example. Three of them were but striplings. Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas was in his sixteenth or seventeenth year. He was a nephew of Amina, mother of the Holy Prophet. Zubair, the nephew of Khadija and the son of the Holy Prophet’s aunt, Safiya, was even younger; about the same age as Talha, a relative of Abu Bakr and a renowned warrior in later days. The fourth convert was Uthman, son of Affan, who succeeded Umar as Khalifa; though he was of the Umayyad stock, on his mother’s side he was the grandson of Abdul Muttalib. At this time Uthman was about thirty - five years of age. The Holy Prophet’s daughter, Ruqayya, being now free from her connection with Utba, son of Abu Lahab, the Holy Prophet gave her in marriage to Uthman, and on her death some twelve years later, he gave his third daughter, Um Kulthum, in marriage to Uthman. The fifth convert was Abdul Rahman, ten years younger than the Holy Prophet, a man of wealth and character. Abdul Rahman, Uthman, and Talha were, like Abu Bakr, merchants. On his first visit to the Holy Prophet, Abdul Rahman was accompanied by four compani ons who embraced Islam at the same time: Ubaidah, son of the Holy Prophet’s uncle, Harith; Abu Salama; Abu Obaida, subsequently a warrior of note; and Uthman, son of Maz’un. The latter had already given up the drinking of liquor, and was with difficulty pe rsuaded by the Holy Prophet to