Zayd ibn Thabit

Scribe of the Revelation

Zayd ibn Thabit came to the Prophet ﷺ as a boy of Banu Najjar who had already memorised seventeen surahs. The Prophet ﷺ, not trusting the Jews to write for him, bade Zayd learn their language — and he mastered it in about a fortnight, becoming the Prophet’s ﷺ scribe for his correspondence and a writer of the revelation. 1 Hayatus Sahaba · Vol 3 · pp. 233–234 — Kandhlawi — Zayd learns the Jews' language in about half a month and becomes the Prophet's scribe and a writer of revelation.

Compiler of the Qur’an

After many memorisers of the Qur’an fell at Yamamah, Abu Bakr — urged by Umar — charged Zayd with gathering the Qur’an into a single manuscript. Zayd said the task felt heavier than moving a mountain, yet he gathered it from parchment, stone, palm-leaf and the memories of men, and the manuscript passed to Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Hafsa. 2 Hayatus Sahaba · Vol 2 · pp. 387–388 — Kandhlawi — Abu Bakr charges Zayd with collecting the Qur'an after Yamamah; Zayd gathers it from many sources. Years later, when recitations diverged across the lands, Uthman had Zayd’s collected text copied into the standard codices sent to the great cities. 3 History of Islam · Vol 1 · pp. 398 — Najeebabadi — Uthman uses Zayd's compilation (kept with Hafsa) to make the standard codices.

Virtues in the Hadith

The Prophet ﷺ named him the foremost of the Ummah in the law of inheritance:

وَأَفْرَضُهُمْ زَيْدُ بْنُ ثَابِتٍ

”…and the most knowledgeable of them in the laws of inheritance is Zayd ibn Thabit.”

Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 3790 · Book 49, Hadith 189 · narrated by Anas ibn Malik · graded Sahih (Darussalam)

When Zayd died, Ibn Umar said that a great scholar had passed away that day. 4 Hayatus Sahaba · Vol 3 · pp. 235 — Kandhlawi — Ibn Umar's words at Zayd's death: a great scholar has passed.