Scholar of Inheritance

The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said that the most learned of his community in the laws of inheritance (fara'id) was Zayd ibn Thabit (Jami' al-Tirmidhi 3790). In the caliphates after the Prophet ﷺ, Zayd served as a judge and a counsellor in Madinah and was left in charge of the city when 'Umar and 'Uthman travelled.

A famous report tells that Ibn 'Abbas, though a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ and the community's greatest interpreter of the Qur'an, once held the stirrup of Zayd's mount. When Zayd protested, Ibn 'Abbas said that this is how we have been told to treat our scholars. Zayd then kissed Ibn 'Abbas's hand and said that this is how we have been told to treat the family of our Prophet ﷺ.

Zayd died around 45 AH, though the sources give years between 42 and 56. Abu Hurayrah is reported to have said on the day he died, "Today the scholar of this community has died; perhaps Allah will make Ibn 'Abbas a successor to him."

01Why it matters

Knowledge brings honour in every direction: the great respect the learned, and the learned respect the great.

02Reflection

How do you treat those who know more than you, and those who are older than you?

03Sources

Jami' al-Tirmidhi 3790Graded by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir: Sahih · Al-Albani: Sahih · Zubair Ali Zai: SahihSahih
Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-KubraHistorical report
al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'Historical report
Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, al-Isti'abHistorical 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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