3 of 5 · c. 610 CE · the first days of Islam · Makkah, then al-Ta'if
Zayd ibn Harithah رضي الله عنه
Among the First to Believe
When the first revelation came, Zayd was among the very first to believe, one of the small circle of Khadijah, 'Ali and Abu Bakr. The classical sources count him as the first freed man to accept Islam.
When the Prophet ﷺ went to al-Ta'if in the tenth year of the mission, seeking protection after the death of Abu Talib and Khadijah, it was Zayd who walked at his side. The people of al-Ta'if rejected them harshly and set their slaves and children to throw stones until their feet bled.
Zayd shielded the Prophet ﷺ as best he could and returned with him, wounded, to Makkah. He was a companion in the hardest hour, not only in the easy ones.
Loyalty is proven in hardship, and the Prophet ﷺ valued those who stood beside him when no one else did.
Who stood with you in a difficult season, and have you thanked them?
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
- Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-KubraHistorical report
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3231 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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