3 of 3 · c. 5 AH / 627 CE · Madinah · Madinah
Zayd ibn Harithah رضي الله عنه
The Name in the Qur'an
Early in Islam the Prophet ﷺ had treated Zayd as a son, and people called him Zayd ibn Muhammad. Then Allah revealed that adopted sons are not true sons, and that people should be called by their real fathers. Ibn 'Umar said that after this they stopped calling him that and called him Zayd ibn Harithah (Sahih al-Bukhari 4782).
Zayd was also the husband of the Prophet's ﷺ cousin Zaynab bint Jahsh, a match that was difficult from the start because of their differences in lineage. When it ended in divorce, the Qur'an told the Prophet ﷺ that he would marry her himself, so that the believers would see that no restriction applied to the wives of adopted sons.
In that passage Zayd is mentioned by name: ﴿فَلَمَّا قَضَىٰ زَيْدٌ مِّنْهَا وَطَرًا زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا﴾ (“when Zayd had completed what he needed of her, We married her to you”) (33:37). He is the only Companion whose name appears in the Qur'an.
Allah honoured a freed slave by naming him in His Book, a rank no lineage could give.
What does it mean that a former slave's name is recited until the Last Day?
- Qur'an 33:5
- Qur'an 33:37
- Sahih al-Bukhari 4782 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim, on Surat al-AhzabHistorical report
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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