Zayd ibn 'Amr ibn Nufayl

(d 'a) Zayd ibn 'Amr ibn Nufayl ibn 'Abd al-'Uzza ibn Riyah ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Qurt ibn Razah ibn 'Adi ibn Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr ibn Malik al-Qurashi al-'Adawi, the father of Sa'id ibn Zayd, one of the ten, and the cousin of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. He and 'Umar share a common ancestor in Nufayl.

The Prophet ﷺ was asked about him and said: He will be raised up as a nation by himself on the Day of Resurrection. He used to worship in the Jahiliyyah, sought the religion of Ibrahim al-Khalil ﷺ, and affirmed the oneness of Allah the Exalted, saying: My Allah is the Allah of Ibrahim, and my religion is the religion of Ibrahim. He used to reproach Quraysh for their sacrifices, saying: The sheep was created by Allah, who sent down for it water from the sky and made plants grow for it from the earth, then you slaughter it in the name of other than Allah the Exalted, denouncing that and magnifying it. He would not eat from what was sacrificed upon the idol-altars. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ met him at the lower part of Baldah (١) before revelation came to him. And he used to revive the buried-alive infant girl.

Abu Mansur ibn Makarim ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'd al-Mu'addib informed us; Nasr ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Safwan informed us; Abu al-Barakat Sa'd ibn Muhammad ibn Idris, and the preacher Abu al-Fada'il al-Hasan ibn Hibat Allah said: Abu al-Faraj Muhammad ibn Idris ibn Muhammad ibn Idris informed us, he said: Abu Mansur al-Muzaffar ibn Muhammad al-Tusi informed us; Abu Zakariyya Yazid ibn Muhammad ibn Iyas ibn al-Qasim al-Azdi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yahya narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Bashshar narrated to us; 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn 'Abd al-Majid informed us, dictating it to us; Muhammad ibn 'Amr informed us.

(h) Abu Zakariyya said: And 'Abd Allah ibn al-Mughirah, the client of Banu Hashim, informed us, on the authority of Ishaq ibn Abi Isra'il; Abu Usamah informed us; Muhammad ibn 'Amr ibn Abi Salamah and Yahya ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah informed us, on the authority of Usamah ibn Zayd, on the authority of his father, Zayd ibn Harithah, who said:

I went out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a hot day of the days of Mecca, while he was an unbeliever in his religion, and we met Zayd ibn 'Amr ibn Nufayl, and each of them greeted the other, and the Prophet ﷺ said: O Zayd, why is it that I see your people have come to hate you (٢)? He said:

By Allah, O Muhammad, that is not because of any blood-vengeance (٣) I have against them, but I went out seeking this religion until I came to the rabbis of Khaybar, and I found them worshipping Allah while associating others with Him, so I said: This is not the religion I seek. So I went out, and an old man among them said to me: You are asking about a religion by which we know of no one worshipping Allah except an old man at al-Hirah. He said: So I went out until I came to him, and when he saw me he said: Where are you from? I said: I am from the people of the House of Allah, from the people of the thorn-trees and the qaraz (٤). He said: Indeed what you seek has appeared in your land; a prophet has been sent whose star has risen, and all those whom you have seen are in error. He said: So I felt nothing.

Zayd said: And Zayd ibn 'Amr died. And it was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet said about Zayd: Indeed he will be raised up on the Day of Resurrection as a single nation.

And Abu Ja'far ibn al-Samin al-Baghdadi informed us, with his chain of transmission, on the authority of Yunus ibn Bukayr, on the authority of Ibn Ishaq: Hisham ibn 'Urwah narrated to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Asma' bint Abi Bakr, who said: I saw Zayd ibn 'Amr ibn Nufayl leaning his back against the Ka'bah, saying: O people of Quraysh, by the One in whose hand is the soul of Zayd, none of you remains upon the religion of Ibrahim but I: and he used to say: O Allah, if I knew the face most beloved to You by which to worship You, I would worship You by it, but I do not know it, then he would prostrate upon his palm.

He said: And Ibn Ishaq narrated to us, he said: Some of the family of Zayd narrated to me: When he entered the Ka'bah he would say: At Your service, truly truly, in worship and servitude; I take refuge in that by which Ibrahim took refuge (١).

And he would say while standing:

To You I yield, [O Allah (٢)], submissive and humbled … whatever You burden me with, I am bearing it. Piety I seek, not deceit; and is one who strives in good like one who has said (٣):

Ibn Ishaq said: And al-Khattab ibn Nufayl had harmed Zayd ibn 'Amr ibn Nufayl until he went out to the upper part of Mecca and settled at Hira' opposite Mecca. Al-Khattab assigned to him youths from the youths of Quraysh and fools from their fools, so that they would not let him enter Mecca, and he would not enter it except in secret from them; and when they learned of him they would inform al-Khattab, who would expel him and harm him, out of dislike that he should corrupt their religion for them, and that any of them should follow him in parting from them.

Al-Khattab was the paternal uncle of Zayd and his brother through his mother, for 'Amr ibn Nufayl had married the mother of al-Khattab after his father Nufayl, and she bore him Zayd ibn 'Amr. Zayd died before the mission of the Prophet ﷺ, and Waraqah ibn Nawfal eulogized him (٤):

You were rightly guided and blessed, O son of 'Amr, and indeed … you have avoided a blazing furnace of the Fire, through your religion to a Lord like whom there is no Lord … and your abandonment of the idols of the tyrants as they were. The mercy of his Lord may reach a man … even were he beneath the earth under sixty (٥) valleys. And he used to say: O people of Quraysh, beware of usury (٦), for it bequeaths poverty.

Abu 'Umar related it (٧).