Zaid Ibn Amr (ra) A One Man Ummah The Firsts

Zayd Ibn Amr (ra): A One Man Ummah

Dr. Omar Suleiman | The Firsts Series

Introduction

Last week I said that we weren't going to go in any chronological order and that we would take one set from before the Prophet's (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) time and then we'd kind of mix it up and I changed my mind. InshaAllah ta'ala we're going to take a very heavy emphasis from the seerah to start this off and we're going to really look at this from the seerah of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and focus on that for some time and then we'll go after, before and jump around.

But what compelled me to this was that I kept on thinking who do we start this series with? And I got drawn into the story of Waraqah ibn Naufal because Waraqah is a very interesting character because Waraqah was - he the first Muslim? Was he not a Muslim? Did he accept the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)? Did he live long enough? What's the story of Waraqah before those moments? Did the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) ever have a conversation with Waraqah before? All of these questions about Waraqah.

And so I decided to go to a man that I've spoken about quite a bit within khutbas and different classes and lectures but I've never really gotten to highlight his biography in full and he's a companion of Waraqah and he's just a remarkable figure all around and he deserves this level of attention and he deserves to be the first. And of course I thought about doing Khadijah first but then people would have accused me of being biased because of my daughter so I decided that we'll do Khadijah third for a reason.

The man is Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl.

The Hunafa - The Monotheists

Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl. An absolutely remarkable figure in the history of Islam has a story unlike any other person from the companions of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). There's truly nothing like him and he belongs to this group of people that were called the Hunafa or the Hanifeen. Not the Hanafis.

I know that the followers of the Madhab of Imam Hanifa (rahimahullah) would want this to be that the first Muslims were Hanafi but it's a different type. They're Hanif meaning they were monotheists. A group of four monotheists that decided that they wanted to follow the religion of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam). They wanted to follow the way of Ibrahim.

They looked at their context in Mecca and they were deeply troubled by the paganism and the idol worship and so they decided that something is wrong about this. And they couldn't quite figure out what the right path would be but at least these four men decided amongst themselves that we're not going to follow the dominant pagan culture in Mecca and we're gonna look for something else.

The Four Hunafa

Now they were four:

1. Uthman ibn al-Huwaitith - He became a Christian and he went to Rome and he actually took up a position amongst the Romans. So he kind of disappears from the story of Islam very early on because he moved out of Mecca very early on. Accepted the religion of Christianity as a result of his rejection of paganism and became a minister amongst the Romans and kind of disappears and falls off.
2. Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh - whose story is very interesting because he becomes Christian as well in this context, in this climate. Then when the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) brings Islam, he accepts Islam and he makes the migration to Abyssinia, the Hijra to Habesha, which is a Christian land. And then the sources seem to indicate that he became Christian again and died as a Christian. However, the narration that states that has some issues with it. So though it's prominent in literature that Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh left Islam and became Christian again in Abyssinia and died that way, it's not a confirmed fact because there is some issue with the narration.
3. Waraqah ibn Naufal - who we'll talk about in depth next week. Waraqah became Christian too. But Waraqah would become a very specific type of Christian. He would become a Nestorian priest, which was the Christianity that Salman al-Farisi would follow.
4. Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl - Out of the four Hunafa, out of the four monotheists in Mecca, three of them became Christian or joined some iteration of Christianity. Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl is never really satisfied with Christianity or Judaism as he sees it in his time. Instead he insists on being a follower of the way of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam).

Zayd's Background and Character

Family Background

Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl is from the Adi clan, Banu Adi of Quraysh. So it's a higher clan and he is the first cousin of Umar ibn al-Khattab (radiyallahu ta'ala anhu). Al-Khattab ibn Nufayl. So it's always good to connect these things from a historical perspective.

There's Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, Umar ibn al-Khattab ibn Nufayl. So that would make al-Khattab the paternal uncle of Zayd. So Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl is the first cousin of Umar.

He would only have two children. One of them is Sa'eed ibn Zayd who would become one of the ten promised paradise. And the other is Atika bint Zayd. Atika with a kaf, not a qaf. So he only has two children - one son and one daughter.

His Monotheistic Stand

The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) saw Zayd growing up and he was fascinated by him. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) never worshipped idols. Abu Bakr (radiyallahu ta'ala anhu) never worshipped idols. But at the same time they were not challenging idol worship in society because the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) had not been called to do that.

Had he challenged them he might face the same repercussions that Zayd would have faced at this time. So the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) has no calling from Allah to reject idol worship actively and publicly. But he doesn't worship idols.

Abu Bakr does not worship idols (radiyallahu ta'ala anhu). Abu Bakr says I was sitting in my room as a kid and my father brought an idol, put him in front of me and he said worship him and ask him for your sustenance. Abu Bakr said I started talking to him I said what's your name? He said the idol didn't answer me. He said can you do this, this, this and that. He asked the idol a few questions. He said this makes no sense whatsoever. You can't even help yourself. I could tip you over and you'll break. So Abu Bakr said I'm not worshipping idols.

Zayd on the other hand says idol worship is a rejection of the way of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam) and Zayd will challenge his society in a very unique way.

His Public Stance Against Idol Worship

The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) mentions that he used to remember being in a gathering and they served food. They served meat to the people there and the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) simply passed and then when it got to Zayd, Zayd said:

"I will not eat that which was slaughtered in the name of your idols and I will not eat except for that which was slaughtered in the name of Allah."

So Zayd takes a very strong stand. In another instance Zayd even became more emboldened in challenging them. He said to them:

"This animal was created by Allah and Allah sent down water from the sky for it and caused vegetation to grow from the earth for it, then you slaughter it in the name of other than Allah."

So he's actually criticizing them at this point and saying what is wrong with you people? How do you serve this meat? How do you slaughter this meat in the name of other than Allah? Dedicated to the idols. When if it was not for Allah neither the animal nor the sustenance of the animal exists.

The Prophet's Personal Encounter with Zayd

The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) even remembered a very personal instance and this is narrated by Zayd ibn Haritha. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was with Zayd ibn Haritha and Zayd ibn Haritha narrates he says that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) met Zayd ibn Amr in a place near Tan'im which is close to Mecca.

And the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was the one serving the food in the gathering. So the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is passing out the food in the gathering. So Zayd obviously likes the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) as a person. He's a noble young man and he sees some good characteristics in the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).

So while the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) comes to him Zayd does not respond aggressively to him. Zayd says to him:

"O son of my brother, do not eat from this. It was slaughtered in the name of other than Allah."

So he's even speaking to the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and advising the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), don't eat from this, don't serve it, don't participate in any of this. Zayd ibn Haritha says from that day onwards the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) never ate from the meat of Quraysh or served it.

Zayd's Worship and Declaration

His Declaration at the Kaaba

Zayd would raise his hands in front of the Kaaba and he would say:

"O Allah, I bear witness that I am on the religion of Abraham."

So imagine walking around the Kaaba and you got all the idols around you have this one man standing in front of the Kaaba and he's holding his hands in dua towards the Kaaba and he's saying "O Allah bear witness I bear witness that I am on the religion of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam)."

His Challenge to Quraysh

Asma (radiyallahu ta'ala anha) says that when the time of Hajj would come around - now their Hajj was a Hajj of idols and it was a festival to where these people would make a lot of money. Hajj was their commerce. It was their money. It was their corruption. It was everything to them right because that's where they got the idols prepared and you know, they prepared the poetry and the festivals and everything that would take place around the Hajj at that time.

Asma (radiyallahu ta'ala anha) says I remember that strange sight of Zayd. Zayd as the festival is carrying out goes and he puts his hands on the Kaaba with his back on it. I really subhanAllah when you read these stories imagine the sight and he calls out to the people and he says:

"O assembly of Quraysh, I swear that not one of you is on the religion of Abraham except for me."

Why? Because Quraysh would admit that this house was built by Ibrahim (alayhi salaam). They would say it was built by Ibrahim. They had murals inside the Kaaba of Abraham and Mary and Jesus (alayhi salaam). They had pictures of them and they had sculptures of them and idols and they still took pride in being descendants of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam) and Zayd is calling out to them and saying no one of you is on the religion of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam) except for me.

His Unique Form of Worship

Isma' relates this very beautiful and touching moment where she says that Zayd would make sujood towards the Kaaba. He prostrated to the Kaaba and the whole story of Zayd is amazing because he has no revelation to guide him. He doesn't know what ruku' is, what bowing is and what sujood and what prostration is. But he just, subhanAllah, his intuition, he's guided towards good.

There's rushd. There's guidance in his actions. He knows to make sajda, to prostrate towards the Kaaba and she said he would start to cry and he said to Allah, he said this dua. She was curious. Isma' was a curious young woman. She said I heard him say:

"O Allah, if only I knew which of the ways was most beloved to You, I would worship You in that way, but I do not know, but I worship You like this, O Lord."

"O Allah, if only I knew which of the ways was most pleasing to you, I would worship you in accordance with that way, but I don't know. But I worship you like this, O Allah."

So I'm gonna do sujood and hope that I'm right. I'm gonna prostrate to you and hope that I'm right.

Understanding of True Worship

Now what's significant is that the post-Council of Nicaea Christians were not doing sujood as prostration was no longer a part of their prayer. So Zayd is exerting himself to think what would Ibrahim (alayhi salaam) do? What was the religion of Abraham? What was the way of Abraham?

Now think about what's happening in Mecca right now. They've taken the rituals of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam), which were made for monotheism, made for tawheed, and they've turned all of them into pagan rituals. The Kaaba was built for the worship of Allah. Tawaf was supposed to be an exclusive remembrance of God and the centering of Allah as the one God. And now they put idols around the Kaaba.

Ibrahim (alayhi salaam) who preached modesty, now they do tawaf with no clothes around these idols. And they sing all sorts of poetry of ignorance. The animals were supposed to be slaughtered as a means of glorifying Allah:

"Say, 'Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death are for Allah, Lord of the worlds.''"

The sacrifice is being done in the name of idols. And there's all sorts of, you know, some idols are more valuable than others.

The Persecution of Zayd

Opposition from His Uncle

So Zayd is seeing this and Zayd is naturally exerting himself, you know, away from this. Now as Zayd becomes more annoying, the person that would walk up to him and torture him was none other than his uncle Al-Khattab, the father of Umar (radiyallahu ta'ala anhu).

First Al-Khattab started to curse him, then he would spit at him, then he would beat him. Then Al-Khattab would call for the other people to beat him as well. And he made Zayd's life so difficult that Zayd could no longer enter into Mecca except in secrecy.

When Zayd would leave Mecca, he could only come back in secrecy because Al-Khattab would release the sufaha, he'd release the thugs to beat on him. Anytime, he said, if you see this man come back into

Mecca, I want you to beat him and I want you to teach him a lesson. Because Al-Khattab was a proud man. And so even though Zayd was not harming anybody, but the fact that he was challenging these rituals, that was the way of Al-Khattab.

Now you know where Umar (radiyallahu ta'ala anhu) was acting out of before he became Muslim, right? You've got a problem. This is how you solve it. He went to the Ka'bah to kill the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) the first time, right? He said, okay, I'm confused now. I'm gonna go to the Ka'bah and just kill him in front of the Ka'bah. Because that's how his father dealt with the challenge of Tawheed.

The Prophet's Amazement

Even the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was amazed. And you think about what would be told to the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) later on, that your people will run you out. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) went up to him and asked him one day:

Ya Zayd, ma li ara qawmaka qad shanafu alayk?

"O Zayd, why is it that your people hate you so much?"

Imagine the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) has no idea what his future holds. And he's talking to this older man who's challenging paganism all by himself and declaring the way of Ibrahim. So he says, why is it that your people hate you so much?

And Zayd responds:

Ya ibn akhi, inni taraktu deenahum wa asnamahum li deeni Ibrahim wa ilahi Ibrahim

"O son of my brother, it's because I have left their religion and their idols for the religion and the God of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam)."

And his motto became:

Ilahi ilahu Ibrahim wa deeni deenu Ibrahim

"My Lord is the Lord of Abraham. My religion is the religion of Abraham."

Zayd's Noble Actions

Saving Baby Girls from Infanticide

Asma (radiyallahu anha) says:

Wa kana yuhyi al-maw'udah

"He used to give life to the young girls that would be buried alive."

Obviously, this doesn't mean he raises them from the dead. What is she referring to? He would stop the men from burying their daughters alive. With no guidance from the Quran, no

- "And when the female infant, buried alive, is asked for what crime she was killed?" (Quran 81:8-9) - Zayd abhorred this practice.

Zayd would actually go, and this is powerful language,

. Asma says he would give life to them because it's like he was saving their lives because otherwise he would have all of these girls that would be killed.

So, what she says is that Zayd used to go out, there was a particular area in Mecca where they actually buried the girls alive. They would put out ditches, and they would bury the girls alive. And this is what Allah talks about in the Quran:

Wa idha bushshira ahaduhum bil-untha zalla wajhuhu muswaddan wa huwa kazeem

"And when one of them is informed of [the birth of] a female, his face becomes dark, and he is filled with grief." (Quran 16:58)

That when they were given the glad tidings of a girl, that they would hang their heads in shame and sadness, and they would try to hide from the people because they saw a girl as poverty. They saw a girl as shame.

His Method of Intervention

And Zayd, knowing that, was disgusted by it. So Zayd would go out at the time in which they would take their girls out to bury them, and this is what he would say to them:

La taqtulha, ana akfeeka mau'unataha

"Don't kill her. I will take care of her, and I'll take care of all of our expenses."

So Zayd would take the young girl. He would spend on the girl. He would raise the girl. And then once, this is subhanAllah, you know, this shows you the type of character the man has. Once she grew up and

she became older, he would go back to the parents, and he would say:

In shi'ta dafa'tuha ilayk, wa in shi'ta kafaytuka mau'unataha

"Look, now if you want, I can return her back to you. Or if you want, I'll take care of marrying her off as well."

So the man was raising all these young abandoned girls in Mecca. And then when they reached an age, he would act as their wali. He would act as their guardian. He would find them the right suitor, and then he would marry them off.

SubhanAllah, like where does that come from? Where is that fitrah from? How is the guy making sujood? Saving young girls from being buried alive. And subhanAllah, even, it's narrated about him, he never committed adultery, and he never drank alcohol.

His Moral Standards

And in fact, he has a saying, he said:

lyyaka wa az-zina fa innahu yurithu al-faqr

"Beware of committing adultery, because it bears poverty in your life."

So he even would say that he's opposed to zina. He's opposed to adultery and fornication. He's opposed to alcohol. So basically, I mean, he's living this life in accordance with the religion that would come after him. And that was the sincerity of his pursuit of the way of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam).

Zayd's Search for Truth

His Travels

Now, he travels the world to try to find guidance. He says, I want the way of Abraham. Again, he would adopt from Christianity, whatever he felt matched up to the way of Abraham. He'd adopt from Judaism, whatever he felt matched up to the way of Abraham. But he says, I am on the way of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam).

Him and Waraqah went to Sham together. So Sham is greater Syria, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan. He goes there with Waraqah. Waraqah, of course, immerses himself in the literature of the Old Testament and the New Testament and the Injeel, the Gospel and the Torah. Waraqah immerses himself, he learns Hebrew, he gets very deep into this, and this sort of becomes his life to the point that Waraqah becomes a priest.

Zayd, on the other hand, continues to travel, is never really satisfied with the answers that he's getting. And he doesn't have the support of his family. So his uncle tortures him and says, don't come around. If you come around, then you'll be beaten.

The Prophecy About the Coming Prophet

He goes to Mosul, which if you remember in Iraq, the story of Salman al-Farisi, Salman also went to Mosul in Iraq. So he went to Mosul to study their Christianity in Mosul. And then he went to Sham.

And when he went to Sham, he did what Salman did. He said, take me to the most knowledgeable rahib. I want the most knowledgeable scholar amongst you.

So they take him to the most knowledgeable scholar amongst you. And after Zayd has argued with rabbis and priests about religion, he comes to this man and he tells this man what he's looking for and what he wants. And this rahib says to Zayd, he says that the one that you're looking for is due to come out from the land that you left.

Go back to Mecca. Go back to where you come from. And this Nabi, this prophet is there, is going to be sent now.

Zayd's Final Journey and Death

His Return and Tragic End

So Zayd gets excited. He turns back towards Mecca. He has no idea that that young man, Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), who he used to call his cousin, and saw such noble character, he had no idea that that was going to be the one that was going to be the prophet or the messenger.

But he's making his way back to Mecca so that he can await for this prophet. On his way back, he is captured by highway robbers. They steal everything he has. And he's so close. He's in a land called Balqa, very close to Месса.

So he's made it out of Sham. He's getting so close and he's captured. They steal everything that he has. And after they steal everything that he has, they decide to kill him and cast his body to the side. SubhanAllah, think of all this. And Zayd was around the age of 85 years old at this time.

His Final Dua

While Zayd was about to be killed, he made this beautiful dua, made the supplication as he was about to be killed. He said:

Allahumma in kunta harramtani suhbata nabiyyik fa la tuhrim ibni Zayd min dhalik

And also the fact that the tawheed of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam) comes with far more implications than merely worshipping Allah. Zayd was guided to protect the young girls that were being buried alive, guided away from zina and khamr, guided away from adultery and from intoxication, guided to all of these good things in a natural way. And that is the way of Ibrahim (alayhi salaam), not merely the worship of Allah, but the honoring of Allah with everything else.

"May Allah be pleased with him and have mercy on him."