Zayd ibn Harithah

زَيْدُ بْنُ حَارِثَةَ

Zayd ibn Ḥārithah

Companion · Military Commander · Adopted son of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم (pre-Ahzab)

The Beloved of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلمThe Only Companion Named in the QuranAdopted Son (formerly Zayd ibn Muhammad)

Biography

Zayd ibn Ḥārithah رضي الله عنه was from the Qaḥṭānī Arabs of Yemen. As a child of seven or eight, he was kidnapped by relatives on his mother's side during a tribal skirmish and sold into slavery at the market of ʿUkāẓ for four hundred dirhams, just as Yūsuf عليه السلام had been sold by his brothers. Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām, the nephew of Khadijah رضي الله عنها, purchased him and brought him to her household. When Khadijah married the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, she gifted Zayd to him.

His father Ḥārithah searched frantically for years until a traveller at Hajj recognized Zayd's Yemeni features and told him his son was in Makkah. Ḥārithah came with his brother Kaʿb to buy Zayd's freedom, offering any ransom. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "No ransom. If he chooses you, he goes free. If he chooses me, I cannot turn away from someone who has turned to me."

Then he called Zayd and asked him to choose. Without hesitation, Zayd said: "I can never choose anyone over you. You are to me more than a father and an uncle combined." Even Zayd's shocked father could not change the answer. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم then walked to the Ḥijr, the open section of the Kaʻbah, and announced before all of Makkah: "Zayd is free, and I adopt him as my son." He became Zayd ibn Muḥammad. Ibn ʿUmar says: "I never knew him by any other name until Sūrat al-Aḥzāb verse 5 was revealed, Call them by their fathers." Then he became Zayd ibn Ḥārithah again.

Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī held that Zayd was the first to accept Islam, reconciled with other reports as the first among the freed servants. Every expedition the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم sent, Zayd commanded, no one was placed above him. He was martyred at the Battle of Muʾtah along with Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib and ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah. He is the only companion mentioned by name in the Quran: فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدٌ مِّنْهَا وَطَرًا (al-Aḥzāb 33:37), a verse recited until the Day of Judgement.

Significance

Zayd's choice of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم over his own blood father, before prophethood, says more about the Prophet's character than volumes of description. He is the only companion whose name is recited in the Quran until the Day of Judgement.

Stories

Zayd ibn Ḥārithah: The Adopted Son

companion biography

Zayd ibn Ḥārithah رضي الله عنه was from the Qaḥṭānī branch of the Arabs, the Southern Arabs, not the ʿAdnānī branch of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.…

Biography

Significance

Stories

Zayd ibn Ḥārithah: The Adopted Son

The Journey to Ṭāʾif and the Duʿāʾ of Ṭāʾif

ʿAddās the Christian Slave and the Angel of the Mountains

The Return from Badr: Zayd's Announcement, Ruqayyah's Burial, and the Beginning of Hypocrisy

The Sariyya of Qarada, Interception of the Quraysh Caravan

Abu al-As's Second Capture, Zaynab's Protection, and the Fiqh of Interfaith Marriage

Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah and the Women's Exception

The Marriage of Zaynab bint Jahsh: A Nikah from Above the Seven Heavens

The Departure for Mu'tah

The Council of War at Ma'an

The Deaths of the Three Commanders at Mu'tah

Khalid's Tactical Withdrawal at Mu'tah

Knowledge of the Unseen: The Death of the Najāshī and 'My Lord Killed Your Lord'

Barakah Umm Ayman: The First Hands

The Private Dawah: The First Muslims

Laylat al-Jinn, The Night of the Jinn in Nakhlah Valley

Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī's Protection and Re-Entry into Makkah

Historical context

“You Concealed Within Yourself What Allah Would Disclose”: The Two Versions

The Custody Dispute Over Umarah bint Hamzah

The Prophet's ﷺ Grief in Medina