Zayd ibn Haritha al-Kalbi
Zayd ibn Ḥāritha al-Kalbī , was an early Muslim, Sahabi and the former adopted son of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. He is commonly regarded as the fourth person to have accepted Islam, after Muhammad's wife Khadija, Muhammad's cousin Ali, and Muhammad's close companion Abu Bakr. Zayd was a slave that Hakim ibn Hizam, Khadija's nephew, bought for her at a market in Ukaz. Zayd then became her and Muhammad’s adopted son and took his lineage. His lineage was later restored just before he had his second wife Zaynab bint Jahsh divorced and married to Muhammad. He later went on to marry into Muhammad's family.
Zayd was a commander in the early Muslim army and led several early military expeditions during the lifetime of Muhammad. Zayd led his final expedition in September 629 CE, when he set out to raid the Byzantine city of Bosra. However the Muslim army was intercepted by Byzantine forces and Zayd was subsequently killed at the Battle of Mu'tah.
Childhood
Zayd is said to have been ten years younger than Muhammad, suggesting a birth-year of 581. He is also said to have been 55 years old at his death in 629, indicating a birthdate of 576.He was born into the Udhra branch of the Kalb tribe in the Najd region, central Arabia. He claimed a pedigree twelfth in descent from Udhra ibn Zayd al-Lat ibn Rufayda ibn Thawr ibn Kalb ibn Wabara. Zayd's mother, Suda bint Thaalaba, was from the Maan branch of the Tayy tribe.
When Zayd was around 8, or "a young boy of an age at which he could be a servant" he accompanied his mother on a visit to her family. While they were staying with the Maan tribe, horsemen from the Qayn tribe raided their tents and kidnapped Zayd. They took him to the market at Ukkaz and sold him as a slave for 400 dinars.
Zayd's family searched for him, but without success. A lament is attributed to his father, Harithah ibn Sharahil :
Slavery in Mecca
Zayd was purchased by a merchant of Mecca, Hakim ibn Hizam, who gave the boy as a present to his aunt, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. He remained in her possession until the day she married Muhammad, when she gave the slave as a wedding present to her bridegroom. Muhammad became very attached to Zayd, to whom he referred as al-Ḥabīb.Some years later, some members of Zayd's tribe happened to arrive in Mecca on pilgrimage. They encountered Zayd and recognised each other, and he asked them to take a message home.
for I am far away, that close to the House and the places of pilgrimage I stay.
Let go of the grief that has deeply saddened you,
and do not hasten your camels all over the earth.
I live with the best of families, may God be blessed;
from father to son, of Ma'ad they are the noblest.
On receiving this message, Zayd's father and uncle immediately set out for Mecca. They found Muhammad at the Kaaba and promised him any ransom if he would return Zayd to them. Muhammad replied that Zayd should be allowed to choose his fate, but that if he wished to return to his family, Muhammad would release him without accepting any ransom in exchange. They called for Zayd, who easily recognised his father and uncle, but told them that he did not want to leave Muhammad, "for I have seen something in this man, and I am not the kind of person who would ever choose anyone in preference to him." At this, Muhammad took Zayd to the steps of the Kaaba, where legal contracts were agreed and witnessed, and announced to the crowds: "Witness that Zayd becomes my son, with mutual rights of inheritance." On seeing this, Zayd's father and uncle "were satisfied," and they returned home without him.
In accordance with the Arabic custom of adoption at the time, Zayd was thereafter known as "Zayd ibn Muhammad" and was a freedman, regarded socially and legally as Muhammad's son.
Conversion to Islam
At an unknown date before 610, Zayd accompanied Muhammad to Ta'if, where it was a tradition to sacrifice meat to the idols. Near Baldah on their way back to Mecca, they met Zayd ibn Amr and offered him some of the cooked meat that Zayd was carrying in their bag. Zayd ibn Amr, an outspoken monotheist, replied, "I do not eat anything which you slaughter in the name of your stone idols. I eat none but those things on which Allah's Name has been mentioned at the time of slaughtering." After this encounter, said Muhammad, "I never stroked an idol of theirs, nor did I sacrifice to them, until God honoured me with his apostleship."When Muhammad reported in 610 that he had received a revelation from the angel Jibril, Zayd was one of the first converts to Islam. While Khadijah was the first Muslim of all in the Ummah of Muhammad, she was closely followed by her neighbour Lubaba bint al-Harith, her four daughters, and the first male converts, Ali, Zayd and Abu Bakr.
The ''Hijrah''
In 622, Zayd joined the other Muslims in the Hijrah to Medina. Once settled in the new city, Muhammad urged each Muslim to "take a brother in Religion" so that each would have an ally in the community. Zayd was paired with Muhammad's uncle Hamza. Hamza accordingly trusted his last testament to Zayd just before his death in 625.A few months later, Muhammad and Abu Bakr sent Zayd back to Mecca to escort their families to Medina. The return party consisted of Muhammad's wife Sawda, his daughters Umm Kulthum and Fatimah, his servant Abu Rafi, Zayd's wife Baraka and their son Usama, Abu Bakr's wife Umm Rumman, his children Asma, Abdullah and Aisha, and a guide named Abdullah ibn Urayqit, and Abu Bakr's kinsman Talhah also decided to accompany them.
Marriages and children
Zayd married at least six times.- Durrah bint Abi Lahab, a cousin of Muhammad. They were divorced; the dates are unknown, but Durrah's two brothers were divorced from Muhammad's two daughters in 613.
- Umm Ayman, Muhammad's freedwoman and mother of Ayman ibn Ubayd. They were married "after Islam" and their son was born in 612.
- Hind bint Al-Awwam, a niece of Khadijah.
- Humayma bint Sayfi, the widow of Al-Baraa ibn Maarur, a chief in Medina. Al-Baraa died in August or September 622, so the marriage to Zayd was presumably in or after 623.
- Zaynab bint Jahsh, a cousin of Muhammad. They were married in 625 and divorced in late 626.
- Umm Kulthum bint Uqba, a maternal sister of Caliph Uthman. This marriage was ordered by Muhammad in 628, but it ended in divorce."
- Usama, son of Barakah, who had descendants, but their number "never exceeded twenty in any given generation."
- Zayd, son of Umm Kulthum, who died in infancy.
- Ruqayya, daughter of Umm Kulthum, who died while under the care of Uthman.
Marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh
The Prophet was well aware that it is a person's standing in the eyes of Allah that is important, rather than his or her status in the eyes of the people... their marriage would demonstrate that it was not who their ancestors were, but rather their standing in the sight of Allah, that mattered.
By contrast, Montgomery Watt points out that Zayd was high in Muhammad's esteem.
She can hardly have thought that he was not good enough. She was an ambitious woman, however, and may already have hoped to marry Muhammad, or she may have wanted to marry someone with whom Muhammad did not want his family to be so closely allied.
When Muhammad announced a new verse of the Qur'an,,
Zaynab acquiesced and married Zayd.
Divorce from Zaynab
The marriage lasted less than two years.A story rejected by Muslim scholars, was later proposed by the 9th-century historians Ibn Sa'd and al-Tabari, in which Muhammad paid a visit to Zayd's house: the hairskin curtain that served as Zayd's front door was blown aside, accidentally revealing Zaynab dressed only in her shift. Zaynab arose to dress herself, advising Muhammad that Zayd was not at home but he was welcome to visit. However, he did not enter. He exclaimed to himself, “Praise be to Allah, who turns hearts around!” and then departed. When Zayd came home, Zaynab told him what had happened. Zayd went to Muhammad, saying: "Prophet, I have heard about your visit. Perhaps you admire Zaynab, so I will divorce her." Muhammad replied, "No, fear Allah and keep your wife."
After this, they report there having been a conflict between the couple, and Zaynab shut Zayd out of the bedroom. Zayd divorced Zaynab in December 626.
The story has been rejected by most Muslim scholars mainly because of its lack of having any chain of narration and its complete absence from any authentic hadith. Some commentators have commented it being absurd that Muhammad would suddenly become aware of Zaynab's beauty one day after having known her all her life; if her beauty had been the reason for Muhammad to marry her, he would have married her himself in the first place rather than arranging her marriage to Zayd.
According to the translator Fishbein:
Zaynab, who was Muhammad's cousin, had been married by Muhammad's arrangement to Muhammad's freed slave Zayd b. Harithah, who lived in Muhammad's household and came to be regarded as his adoptive son - so that he was regularly addressed as Zayd, son of Muhammad. Whether the marriage between Zayd and Zaynab was a mesalliance from the beginning is speculation, though the account maintains that Zayd was not reluctant to divorce his wife and allow her to marry Muhammad. Muhammad is portrayed as reluctant to proceed with the marriage because of scruples about whether marrying one's adopted son's former wife violated the prohibited degrees of marriage. Arab customary practice recognized kinship relations not based on blood ties: fosterage was one such relationship; the question whether adoption fell into this category must have been unclear among Muslims. The marriage did not take place until after a Qur'anic revelation was received, giving permission for believers to marry the divorced wives of their adopted sons.
Historiographic assessments suggest that the "lovestruck" narratives themselves were a fabrication that developed over a century after the death of Muhammad.