The story of the name
Show me the market
He arrived in Madinah with nothing. His assigned Ansari brother, Sa'd ibn al-Rabi', offered to divide half of his wealth and divorce one of his wives for him. Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (RA) turned it down. His answer has been remembered ever since: "may Allah bless you in your family and your wealth — show me the market" (Bukhari 2048; also 3780).
He traded butter and dried curd. Not long after, the Prophet ﷺ noticed the trace of perfume on him and asked. Abd al-Rahman (RA) explained that he had married an Ansari woman. The Prophet ﷺ told him: give a walimah, even with one sheep.
He became one of the wealthiest Companions and that fortune eventually became the ummah's logistics: caravans arriving whole into Madinah's needs, armies equipped, widows endowed.
The name the Prophet ﷺ gave him
He was not born with this name. Before Islam he was Abd Amr — and the Prophet ﷺ changed it to Abd al-Rahman: servant of the Most Merciful. A name that had pointed at a man, redirected to point at Allah.
His very name is one of the two the Prophet ﷺ called dearest to Allah (Muslim 2132). And Abd al-Rahman (RA) showed what that servanthood looks like at scale: Mercy, backed by wealth, reaching a whole city.
The man the Prophet ﷺ prayed behind
On campaign at Tabuk, the Prophet ﷺ arrived as the congregation was mid-prayer — and completed a rak'ah behind Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (Muslim 274). He then praised the companions for having prayed on time rather than waiting for him.
The scholars note the honor no other resume contains, leading the best of creation ﷺ in prayer belongs to Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (RA).
Humility and fear of affluence
Despite his great wealth and stature, he remained exceedingly humble. He is among the ten given glad tidings of Paradise. The wealth ran through his hands without ever settling in them.
At Uhud he stood his ground beside the Prophet ﷺ and took wounds he carried for life, including an injury that left him with a limp. In dress he was indistinguishable from his servants. And the reports say that when good food was placed before him, he would weep — remembering Mus'ab ibn Umayr (RA), who died without enough cloth to shroud him properly, while the world had been opened up to him instead.
He also transmitted the ruling that guided a caliph. When plague struck during Umar's (RA) time and the army stood at the border of a stricken land, it was Abd al-Rahman (RA) who related what the Prophet ﷺ had said: do not enter a land where plague has broken out, and do not flee from it if it breaks out where you are (Bukhari; Muslim).
To carry this name
To carry this name is to be the Most Merciful's servant visibly: earn cleanly, give hugely, and stay light enough that if everything vanished tomorrow you would just ask for the market again.