Usamah Ibn Zayd The youngest person ever to be appointed a Commander by the Prophet (SAS) . Usamah was the son of Zayd Ibn Harithah, the servant of the Prophet (SAS), whom he took as his own son before adoption was forbidden in Islam , Zayd was the only companion whose name is explicitly mentioned in the Quran , and his mother was Barakah Umm Ayman, the woman who took care of the Prophet (SAS) . The companions of the prophet (PBUH) nicknamed Usama ( the loved one, son of the loved one ) because The Prophet (SAS) loved Usamah and his father so much. Usama was the youngest person ever to be appointed a Commander by the Prophet (SAS), he showed in his early years the signs of a great leader. He was intelligent, humble and enormously courageous. Prophet Muhammad (SAS) started to organize a great Army to Syria 'Byzantine Empire’ under the command of Usamah Ibn Zayd. This was the last mission, which the Prophet dispatched, A growl spread around among a group of Muslims who were distressed by this matter and who found it too much for a youth such as Osama Ibn Zayd to command an army which included a large number of Muhaajiruun and elderly Ansar. Their whispers reached the prophet (SAS) , so he ascended the pulpit, thanked and praised Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and then said, "Some people criticized Osama's army command; they criticized his father's command before him. His father deserved to be the commander as well as Osama . He is the most beloved to me next to his father, and I hope he is among the virtuous ones. I request you to treat him well." Abu Bakr the successor of Prophet, insisted on the command of Osamah ibn Zayd after the prophet‘s (SAS) death, because it was the Prophet’s decision , and Usamah executed the orders of the Prophet( SAS) and the Khalifah. The news of the prophet's (SAS) death and of Usamah's raids on some of his cities reached Hiraql the emperor of Rome at the same time. The Romans had been planning to attack the Muslims but were surprised by the Muslims power. Hiraql believed that those Muslims must be very powerful and have a pretty huge and strong army if they are sending armies to take over new land when their leader just died. They then decided that it wasn't wise to attack the Muslims. The army returned without losing a single man, therefore the Muslims said “We've never seen a safer army than Osama's”. Usamah ibn Zayd (rady allah anhu) died in year 54 A.H source : regal hawl alrasol book (men around the prophet (SAS) by Khaled Mohamed Khaled http://forums.almaghrib.org/showthread.php?t=972 http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15262 courtesy Rania Bakr