Zayd ibn Ḥārithah

A little about the three commanders. The first one: Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. Zayd ibn Ḥārithah is from the tribe of Quḍāʿah. Quḍāʿah is a Yemeni tribe that moved into the Ḥijāz and into al-Shām. He was taken by his mother to visit her family, and they were attacked — ambushed by horsemen from Banū al-Qayn, another Arab tribe. So they took them as slaves and sold them. That is how it was in the wild life of pre-Islamic Arabia: raids, and they would take the families and the children and just sell them in the market. So Zayd ibn Ḥārithah ended up being sold. Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām bought him and gave him as a gift to Khadījah, the wife of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and she gave him as a gift to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So Zayd ibn Ḥārithah ended up in the property of Muḥammad (peace be upon him) in the time of the Jāhiliyyah; this was before prophethood.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) loved Zayd so much. The father of Zayd and his uncle found out about his whereabouts, so they came asking the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to give them their son back. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: fine — how about we give Zayd the choice? Let us leave it to Zayd. Zayd was now an adult; he could make the choice for himself. His father was very happy with this: definitely he is going to choose us over slavery. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told Zayd: whom do you want to stay with? Zayd said: I want to stay with you. Subḥān Allāh — this tells volumes about the personality and the character of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): Zayd would rather stay with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) as a slave than go back with his father. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) immediately said: and I free you, and I adopt you as my own son, and from now on your name is Zayd ibn Muḥammad and not Zayd ibn Ḥārithah.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) loved him so much. And he married him to Umm Ayman, who was also a slave woman; the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) married her to Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, and they had a child, Usāmah ibn Zayd. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) married Zayd ibn Ḥārithah to his own cousin, Zaynab bint Jaḥsh — this has been discussed — and the marriage did not work out, so he divorced her.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) spoke about Usāmah, because when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) appointed Usāmah to lead an army, some of the noblemen were not very happy that Usāmah, who came from a background of slavery, should be the leader over them. Plus Usāmah was eighteen years old, very young in age. So they talked about it a little, and the news reached the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: in taṭʿanū fī imāratihi fa-qad kuntum taṭʿanūna fī imārati abīhi min qabl, wa ayimu Allāhi in kāna la-khalīqan li-al-imārah, wa in kāna la-min aḥabbi al-nāsi ilayy, wa inna hādhā la-min aḥabbi al-nāsi ilayya baʿdah. This hadith is in al-Bukhārī and Muslim (al-Bukhārī 3730; Muslim 2426). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: if you dispute his leadership, you were disputing the leadership of his father before him; and by Allah, he was an appropriate person for leadership, and his father was an appropriate person for leadership; and he is among the most beloved people to me, and his father was among the most beloved people to me.

There is an additional virtue of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, and that is that he is the only Companion mentioned by name in the Qur'an: fa-lammā qaḍā Zaydun minhā waṭaran zawwajnākahā — so when Zayd had finished with her, We married her to you (33:37). He is the only Ṣaḥābī mentioned by name in the Qur'an, in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, in the Book of Allah that will be recited until the Day of Judgement. We are reciting the name of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah (may Allah be pleased with him). What a great honour for this man.