Lives of Sahaba 72 - Zayd Ibn Thabit

In this outstanding lecture by Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, we delve into the life and times of another great name amongst the Sahabah - Zayd Ibn Thabit RA. Zayd Ibn Thabit was an Ansar and he embraced Islam at the age of 11 years. He was learned and well versed in reading, writing and arithmetic. He was made to learn and master the Yahud language for easiness in understanding the letters that came to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ on his very insistence. He did so in a meager two weeks. He is known as Kuttab Ul Wahi and he was the first one to attain this honour. He went on to become the primary scribe and secretary of the Prophet ﷺ. Whenever a portion of the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet ﷺ, he would immediately call for Zayd and instruct him to bring the parchment, tablets and charcoal,shoulder blades of camels, papyrus or many other materials on which to write the Divine Revelation. He was among the youngest to participate in the Battle of Uhud though his main area of expertise was knowledge which covered two aspects - the Qur'an and Fiqh of inheritance - Ilm Al Faraid. Ibn Abbas RA had learned from Zayd Ibn Thabit RA. In the Battle of Tabuk, precedence was given by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to carry the flag for the ones who knew the Qur'an and Zayd was the ideal and most apt choice.In the Battle of Yarmouk, distribution of war booty to all the 10000 sahabah was done under the able and appropriate guidance of Zayd Ibn Thabit RA. The next major contribution by Zayd RA came in the form of compiling of the Qur'an for which he was placed on the editorial board of sorts. There were two stages of this compilation - the first in the time of Abu Bakr RA and the second in the time of Uthman RA separated by a span of 15 years. The Noble Qur'an is the best preserved noble Book till date as it was done just one year after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ left this world and so all the Sahabas of seniority were present to compile the Qur'an to perfection. And all of them unanimously agreed upon Zayd RA doing the coveted job to perfection. Zayd RA began to fully fathom the weighty responsibility which is when he said, "By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr RA) had ordered me to shift one of the mountains from its place, it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur'an." There were many reasons behind choosing Zayd RA for this: He was the numero uno scribe of the Khatam un Nabiyeen RA. He was among the few who had memorized the entire Qur'an. He had the best education with expertise in reading and writing . He was young which was why his energy,zeal and enthusiasm would be unparalleled. His relationship with the Qur'an was from childhood. His integrity was beyond recognition and no one ever doubted him. He was present when the recitation of the entire Qur'an was done in Ramadan by the Prophet ﷺ and he was witness to the hearing of the entire book from start to finish. Zayd Ibn Thabit had 30 children  and most famous among them is Kharijah bin Zayd bin Thabit.