Zayd ibn Thabit

ProfileZayd ibn Thabit

Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the Banu Najjar of the Khazraj, the Prophet's ﷺ maternal relatives in Madinah. According to the early biographies, his father Thabit ibn al-Dahhak was killed in the war of Bu'ath between the Aws and the Khazraj when Zayd was still a small boy, and his mother An-Nawwar bint Malik raised him alone. She believed that her son would be special, and she saw to it that he learned to read, write and do sums, which was rare then. According to the early biographies, when Mus'ab ibn Umayr came to Madinah his mother accepted Islam with him, and Zayd, still a boy, memorized what had been revealed and recited it before the Prophet ﷺ, who was pleased with it.

According to the early biographies, he was too young to fight at Badr and Uhud, and instead of waiting around he gave himself to the Quran, and he was allowed to take part in the Battle of the Trench. The Prophet ﷺ gave him a task: to learn the writing of the Jews, saying that he did not trust the Jews to write for him. Zayd learned it in less than half a month, and he wrote the Prophet's ﷺ letters to them and read theirs to him (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan sahih; Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, he later learned Syriac as well and served as the Prophet's ﷺ interpreter.

He was among the four of the Ansar who had gathered the whole Quran in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ: Ubayy ibn Ka'b, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Abu Zayd and Zayd (Sahih al-Bukhari). He was one of those who wrote down the revelation, and he told of the day verse 4:95 came down while the Prophet's ﷺ thigh was on his thigh, and it became so heavy that he feared his thigh would break. Ibn Umm Maktum, who was blind, had just said that he would fight if he could, and the part excusing those with a disability came down after it (Sahih al-Bukhari). He once said that between the pre-dawn meal and the dawn prayer with the Prophet ﷺ there was about the time to recite fifty verses (Sahih al-Bukhari). The Prophet ﷺ said that the one among his community who knew the law of inheritance best was Zayd ibn Thabit (Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded sahih).

After the Battle of Yamamah, Umar warned Abu Bakr that many reciters had been killed and that part of the Quran might be lost if it was not collected. Abu Bakr asked how he could do something the Prophet ﷺ had not done, but Umar kept urging until Allah opened his chest. Then Abu Bakr sent for Zayd and said that he was a wise young man, that they did not doubt him, and that he used to write the revelation for the Prophet ﷺ, so he should look for the Quran and collect it. Zayd said that if they had asked him to move a mountain it would not have been heavier for him, and that he too asked how they could do what the Prophet ﷺ had not. He collected it from palm stalks, stones and the memories of men, and found the last two verses of Surat at-Tawbah only with Abu Khuzaymah al-Ansari. The pages stayed with Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Hafsa (Sahih al-Bukhari). When Hudhayfah feared that the Muslims were beginning to differ over the Quran, as the Jews and Christians did, Uthman borrowed Hafsa's pages and ordered Zayd, with three men of Quraysh, to write out copies, telling the three that if they and Zayd disagreed they should write it in the dialect of Quraysh. Copies were sent to the provinces (Sahih al-Bukhari). Zayd said that when they copied it he could not find a verse of Surat al-Ahzab that he had heard the Prophet ﷺ recite, until they found it with Khuzaymah ibn Thabit (Sahih al-Bukhari).

According to the early biographies, when the Prophet ﷺ died and the Ansar spoke of choosing a leader of their own, Zayd said that the Prophet ﷺ was from the Muhajirun, that the leader should be from them, and that the Ansar would stay their helpers, and Abu Bakr thanked him for it. According to the early biographies, Umar kept him in Madinah as its mufti and left him in charge when he travelled, and once Umar and Ubayy ibn Ka'b agreed to bring their dispute over date palms before him as their judge. According to the early biographies, when Abdullah ibn Abbas held the reins of his mount to show him honour, Zayd said that he should leave it, and when Ibn Abbas replied that this is how the scholars were to be treated, Zayd kissed Ibn Abbas's hand and said that this is how they should treat the Prophet's ﷺ family. According to the early biographies, when Uthman was under siege Zayd urged the Ansar to be the helpers of Allah and not to take part in shedding his blood. According to the early biographies, when he was asked a question he would first ask whether the matter had actually happened, and if it had not, he would tell the person to come back when it did. A report in al-Adab al-Mufrad from the follower Thabit ibn Ubayd says that he had never seen anyone more serious when sitting with people or more cheerful in his own house than Zayd.

According to the early biographies, when Zayd died, Abu Hurayrah said that the scholar of the community had died and that Allah might make Ibn Abbas his successor, and Ibn Abbas said that this was how knowledge goes away. According to the early biographies, Hassan ibn Thabit, at his funeral, said in verse that it was the poets who were left after him, but who was left to recite the Quran after Zayd. According to the early biographies, his son Kharijah ibn Zayd became one of the seven jurists of Madinah.

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