Zayd ibn Harithah

Zayd is said to have been ten years younger than Muhammad, suggesting a birth-year of c. 581 A.D. He is also said to have been 55 (lunar) years old at his death in 629, indicating a birthdate of 576.[2]^:10

He was born into the Udhra branch of the Kalb tribe in the Najd, central Arabia. He claimed a pedigree twelfth in descent from Udhra ibn Zayd al-Lat ibn Rufayda ibn Thawr ibn Kalb ibn Wabara.[2]^:6[3] Zayd's mother, Suda bint Thaalaba, was from the Maan branch of the Tayy tribe.[2]^:6

When Zayd was "a young boy of an age at which he could be a servant"[4]^:28 he accompanied his mother on a visit to her family. While they were staying with the Maan tribe, horsemen from the Qayn tribe raided their tents and kidnapped Zayd. They took him to the market at Ukkaz and sold him as a slave for 400 dinars .[2]^:6

Zayd's family searched for him, but without success. A lament is attributed to his father, Harithah ibn Sharahil (BaSharahil):

Zayd was purchased by a merchant of Mecca, Hakim ibn Hizam, who gave the boy as a present to his aunt, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. He remained in her possession until the day she married Muhammad, when she gave the slave as a wedding present to her bridegroom. Muhammad became very attached to Zayd, to whom he referred as al-Ḥabīb (Arabic: ٱلْحَبِيْب‎, lit. 'the Beloved').[2]^:6

Some years later, some members of Zayd's tribe happened to arrive in Mecca on pilgrimage. They encountered Zayd and recognised each other, and he asked them to take a message home.

On receiving this message, Zayd's father and uncle immediately set out for Mecca. They found Muhammad at the Kaaba and promised him any ransom if he would return Zayd to them. Muhammad replied that Zayd should be allowed to choose his fate, but that if he wished to return to his family, Muhammad would release him without accepting any ransom in exchange. They called for Zayd, who easily recognised his father and uncle, but told them that he did not want to leave Muhammad, "for I have seen something in this man, and I am not the kind of person who would ever choose anyone in preference to him." At this, Muhammad took Zayd to the steps of the Kaaba, where legal contracts were agreed and witnessed, and announced to the crowds: "Witness that Zayd becomes my son, with mutual rights of inheritance." On seeing this, Zayd's father and uncle "were satisfied," and they returned home without him.[2]^:8–9

In accordance with the Arabic custom of adoption at the time, Zayd was thereafter known as "Zayd ibn Muhammad" and was a freedman, regarded socially and legally as Muhammad's son.[2]^:9

At an unknown date before 610, Zayd accompanied Muhammad to Ta'if, where it was a tradition to sacrifice meat to the idols. Near Baldah on their way back to Mecca, they met Zayd ibn Amr and offered him some of the cooked meat that Zayd was carrying in their bag.[5][6] Zayd ibn Amr, an outspoken monotheist,[7]^:99 replied, "I do not eat anything which you slaughter in the name of your stone idols. I eat none but those things on which Allah's Name has been mentioned at the time of slaughtering."[8] After this encounter, said Muhammad, "I never stroked an idol of theirs, nor did I sacrifice to them, until God honoured me with his apostleship."[5][6]

When Muhammad reported in 610 that he had received a revelation from the angel Jibril (Gabriel), Zayd was one of the first converts to Islam. While Khadijah was the first Muslim of all in the Ummah of Muhammad,[7]^:111 she was closely followed by her neighbour Lubaba bint al-Harith,[2]^:201 her four daughters,[9]^{:21, 25–26} and the first male converts, Ali, Zayd and Abu Bakr.[7]^:114–115

In 622, Zayd joined the other Muslims in the Hijrah to Medina. Once settled in the new city, Muhammad urged each Muslim to "take a brother in Religion" so that each would have an ally in the community. Zayd was paired with Muhammad's uncle Hamza. Hamza accordingly trusted his last testament to Zayd just before his death in 625.[7]^:234

A few months later, Muhammad and Abu Bakr sent Zayd back to Mecca to escort their families to Medina. The return party consisted of Muhammad's wife Sawda, his daughters Umm Kulthum and Fatimah, his servant Abu Rafi, Zayd's wife Baraka and their son Usama, Abu Bakr's wife Umm Rumman, his children Asma, Abdullah and Aisha, and a guide named Abdullah ibn Urayqit, and Abu Bakr's kinsman Talhah also decided to accompany them.[2]^:171–172

Zayd married at least six times.

1. Durrah (Fakhita) bint Abi Lahab, a cousin of Muhammad.[4]^:32 They were divorced; the dates are unknown, but Durrah's two brothers were divorced from Muhammad's two daughters in 613.[9]^:24–26
2. Umm Ayman (Barakah), Muhammad's freedwoman and mother of Ayman ibn Ubayd. They were married "after Islam"[9]^:157 and their son was born in 612.[2]^:65
3. Hind bint Al-Awwam, a niece of Khadijah.[4]^:32
4. Humayma bint Sayfi (Umm Mubashshir), the widow of Al-Baraa ibn Maarur,[9]^{:264, 295–296} a chief in Medina. Al-Baraa died in August or September 622,[4]^:481 so the marriage to Zayd was presumably in or after 623.
5. Zaynab bint Jahsh, a cousin of Muhammad. They were married in 625 and divorced in late 626.[9]^:72–73
6. Umm Kulthum bint Uqba, a maternal sister of Caliph Uthman. This marriage was ordered by Muhammad in 628, but it ended in divorce.[4]^:32"[9]^:163

Zayd had three children.

1. Usama, son of Barakah, who had descendants, but their number "never exceeded twenty in any given generation."[2]^:65
2. Zayd, son of Umm Kulthum, who died in infancy.[4]^:32
3. Ruqayya, daughter of Umm Kulthum, who died while under the care of Uthman.[4]^:32

Zayd was "one of the famous archers among the Prophet's Companions."[2]^:10 He fought at Uhud, Trench and Khaybar, and was present at the expedition to Hudaybiyyah. When Muhammad raided Al-Muraysi, he left Zayd behind as governor in Medina.[2]^:10

Zayd commanded seven military expeditions.[4]^:32

1. Al-Qarada in November 624. He captured a caravan of merchandise, but most of the Meccan merchants escaped.[4]^:32
2. Al-Jumum in September 627.[23]
3. Al-'Is in October 627.[23][11]
4. At-Taraf,[4]^:32 a raid in the Nakhl region "on the road to Iraq".[7]^:664
5. Wadi al-Qura. Zayd raided the area in November 627, but the Fazara tribe counter-attacked, killing some of the Muslims, while Zayd was carried wounded from the field. Zayd swore revenge and, after he had recovered from his injuries in January 628, he returned to Wadi al-Qura with a larger army. This time he defeated the Fazari.[7]^:664–665
6. Hisma, or Khushayn, against the Judham tribe[7]^:662–664 in October 628.[23][24]
7. The Battle of Mu'tah in September 629, where Zayd was killed.[4]^:32–33

According to Aisha, "The Messenger of Allah did not ever send Zayd ibn Haritha in an army without putting him in command of it, even if he stayed after he appointed him."[4]^:32

The mausoleum of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, Ja`far ibn Abī Tālib, and ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah in Al-Mazar near Mu'tah, Jordan

Zayd's grave

Zayd ibn Harithah led his final expedition in September 629 C.E. A Muslim force of 3,000 men set out to raid the Byzantine city of Bosra. However, a Byzantine force of "100,000 Greeks joined by 100,000 men from Lakhm and Judham and Al-Qayn and Bahra' and Bali"[7]^:532 intercepted them at a village called 'Mu'tah'. Zayd held the standard at the battle, until he was struck down by a spear-thrust[4]^:33 and he bled to death.[7]^:534 The other two leaders, Ja`far ibn Abī Tālib and `Abd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah, were also killed, and the Muslim army was routed.[7]^:534–535

On hearing of Zayd's death, Muhammad went to the family. "The daughter of Zayd wept before the Messenger of Allah and the Messenger of Allah wept until he sobbed. Saad ibn Ubada said, 'Messenger of Allah, what is this?' He answered, 'This is the yearning of the lover for the beloved.'"[4]^:33

Zayd ibn Harithah was short, extremely dark, and had a flat nose.[25]

• * indicates that the marriage order is disputed
• Note that direct lineage is marked in bold.

• Islamic adoptional jurisprudence
• Companions of the Prophet
• List of expeditions of Muhammad
• Expedition of Zayd ibn Harithah (disambiguation)

• Powers, David, Zayd, the little-known story of Muhammad's adopted son, Pennsylvania University Press, 2014
• Watt, Montgomery, Muhammad at Mecca, Oxford University Press, 1953
• Watt, Montgomery, Muhammad at Medina, Oxford University Press, 1956
• Lings, Martin. The life of Muhammad from the earliest sources.
• Lecker, M. (1960–2005). "Udhra". The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition (12 vols.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 773–774.