By David S. Powers
Even though Muḥammad had no typical sons who reached the age of adulthood, Islamic resources record that he followed a guy named Zayd almost immediately earlier than receiving his first revelation. This "son of Muḥammad" used to be the Prophet's inheritor for the following fifteen or 20 years. He used to be the 1st grownup male to develop into a Muslim and the single Muslim except Muḥammad whose identify is pointed out within the Qur'an. ultimately, Muḥammad might repudiate Zayd as his son, abolish the establishment of adoption, and ship Zayd to convinced demise on a battlefield in southern Jordan.
Curiously, Zayd has remained a marginal determine in either Islamic and Western scholarship. David S. Powers now makes an attempt to revive Zayd to his rightful place on the heart of the narrative of the Prophet Muḥammad and the beginnings of Islam. to take action, he mines strains left at the back of in commentaries at the Qur'an, in biographical dictionaries, and in ancient chronicles, studying those assets opposed to analogues within the Hebrew Bible. Powers demonstrates that during the debts preserved in those resources, Zayd's personality is modeled on these of biblical figures reminiscent of Isaac, Ishmael, Joseph, and Uriah the Hittite. This modeling procedure used to be deployed through early Muslim storytellers to deal with key matters, Powers contends: the sour clash over succession to Muḥammad and the major theological doctrine of the finality of prophecy. either Zayd's demise on a battlefield and Muḥammad's repudiation of his followed son and inheritor have been after-the-fact structures pushed by means of political and theological imperatives.
David S. Powers is Professor of close to jap stories at Cornell college and writer of Muḥammad isn't the Father of Any of Your males: The Making of the final Prophet, additionally to be had from the collage of Pennsylvania Press.
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Additional resources for Zayd
Example text
17 Muḥammad explained to Zayd that the decision was his to make: If he wished, he could return to his homeland with his father and uncle; alternatively, if he wished, he could remain in Mecca with his master, the man who, unbeknownst to Zayd or any other human being, would soon emerge as a prophet and messenger of God. Muḥammad was testing Zayd to determine whether his loyalty to his master was as great as—indeed, greater than—his love for his birth family. This was Zayd’s first opportunity to demonstrate that his devotion to Muḥammad was absolute and unconditional.
It was not long before Zayd began to complain to his father about flaws in his wife’s character and behavior. As Zayd’s father and Zaynab’s father-in-law, it was Muḥammad’s responsibility to promote domestic harmony. In addition, the Prophet had a strong interest in the success of the marriage, for any son born to the couple would have been his grandson and potential heir. Confident that he could correct Zay nab’s behavior, Muḥammad paid a visit to the couple at their home. When he arrived, Zayd was away on an unspecified task and only Zaynab was there.
When the Kalbīs offer Muḥammad a large sum of money so that they might ransom Zayd and reunite him with his mother, he feigns ignorance and asks them which of his slaves they have in mind. “Zayd b. Ḥāritha,” they reply. Zayd b. Ḥāritha was the slave who had been purchased by Khadīja for either 400 or 700 dirhams and gifted to Muḥammad. Miraculously, Zayd’s father and uncle had tracked him down and they wanted to take him back to his tribal homeland. How could anyone criticize Muḥammad for facilitating Zayd’s reunification with his birth family?