Uthman ibn Talha

A young nobleman of the Quraysh from the Banū ʿAbd al-Dār clan, the traditional custodians of the keys of the Kaaba. Before his conversion to Islam, he encountered Umm Salamah alone at Tanʿīm as she walked toward Madinah with her infant son, having been separated from her husband for sixteen months. Despite being a pagan, his sense of honor (karam) moved him to escort her on foot all the way from Makkah to Madinah, a journey of at least two weeks, leading her camel by hand, turning his back whenever she dismounted, sleeping by the camel at night, not exchanging unnecessary words. When Yathrib came into sight, he said, "Your husband is over there," and returned.

He converted to Islam among the very last batch before the Conquest of Makkah, alongside Khālid ibn al-Walīd and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, earning the honor described in Quran 57:10: "Not equal among you are those who spent and fought before the Conquest."

At the Conquest of Makkah, when al-ʿAbbās asked the Prophet ﷺ to be given both the Siqāyah (right to water pilgrims) and the keys of the Kaaba, Allāh revealed: "Inna Allāha yaʾmurukum an tuʾaddū al-amānāti ilā ahlihā, Allāh commands you to give trusts to those who deserve them" (4:58). The Prophet ﷺ gave the keys to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and told him: "Give them to ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥa. They shall remain with him and his descendants until the Day of Judgment; whoever tries to take them is a wrongdoer." The descendants of ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥa have held the keys of the Kaaba for fourteen and a half centuries, to this day.