Zaid Ibn Haritha (ra) -The Lost Son

𝒁𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝑰𝒃𝒏 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒂(𝒓𝒂) 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑸𝒂𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒂𝒏. Captured, Zaid(ra) was taken to Makkah’s great bustling market of Ukaad. There Hakim Ibn Hizam (ra) purchased the boy for his aunt Khadijah(ra) who upon her marriage to Muhammadﷺ gifted Zaid(ra) to him, so he became his slave and remained so. They grew close with deep fondness whereby the Prophetﷺ treated him like a son less a slave. Zaid(ra) in return loved him dearly, grateful and ever conscious of the fact as he ran errands through the market, how he was treated in Muhammad’sﷺ household was not the fate that befell others. So while Zaid(ra) lived happily under the love and protection of the Prophetﷺ, far away Zaid’s grief-stricken father, Haritha daily lamented the loss of his child not knowing what became of him. He searched far and wide, heart rendering verses never far from his lips, yearning for his long lost son or closure for his heart.

Then one day tribesmen recognised Zaid(ra) in Makkah. They told Zaid of his father’s sadness and spoke of his compositions rendered in his loving memory. Zaid(ra) sent his father three couplets in which he assured him he was well and happy with a noble master. Upon receiving it and discovering his son’s whereabouts, Haritha and his brother immediately set out for Makkah with all the money he had.

The Prophetﷺ agreed to let Zaid(ra) go without ransom leaving the decision to fall freely on Zaid’s(ra) wishes; to go with them or stay with him. 

The Prophet ﷺ said to Haritha;

“If he chooses you, then the ransom is yours and you can take him. But if he chooses me, then by God, I will never choose to part with anyone who chooses to stay with me.”

But to his father and Uncle’s great surprise Zaid(ra) said:

“I have found in my master that which makes me choose him over everything else in the world.”

In jahilliya, lives were split; those who had power and those who were just commodities. Yet the Prophetﷺ even before Islam had a high regard for human life and cherished Zaid so. Hisﷺ character and sense of goodness was so far beyond the norm, that imagine a child’s natural inclination towards his own parent should be put aside so easily in favour of staying with the Prophetﷺ, even as a slave. At that time, the Prophetﷺ formally adopted Zaid(ra) publicly before the people of Makkah whereupon Haritha was finally at peace.

Abdullah Ibn Umar (ra) said:

We used to call Zaid ibn Harithah Zaid ibn Muhammad until the verse: Call them by [the names of] their fathers was revealed. [ Muslim]

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