Zayd ibn Thabit

Zayd ibn Thabit ibn al-Dahhak al-Ansari was from the Khazraj tribe of Madinah. He was only eleven years old at the time of the Hijrah and was turned away from the Battle of Badr for being too young. Despite his youth, he distinguished himself through his sharp intellect and eagerness to learn. He memorised numerous surahs of the Qur'an and the Prophet chose him as one of his primary scribes for recording the revelation. The Prophet also instructed Zayd to learn Hebrew and Syriac so that he could handle correspondence with Jewish and Christian communities. Zayd accomplished this in a remarkably short time, becoming the Prophet's translator and secretary for foreign correspondence. His linguistic ability, combined with his mastery of the Qur'an, made him indispensable in the Prophet's administration. After the Prophet's death and the Battle of Yamamah — in which many huffadh (memorisers of the Qur'an) were martyred — Umar ibn al-Khattab urged Abu Bakr to commission an official compilation of the Qur'an. Abu Bakr entrusted this momentous task to Zayd ibn Thabit. Zayd described the gravity of this assignment, saying: 'By Allah, if they had asked me to move a mountain from its place, it would not have been heavier upon me than what they ordered me to do of compiling the Qur'an.' He meticulously gathered and verified every verse from written materials and the memories of the Companions, producing the first complete compiled mushaf. This account is recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari. During the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan, Zayd again played a central role when the standard copies of the Qur'an were prepared and distributed to the major cities of the Muslim world. He was also a leading authority in Islamic jurisprudence and the science of inheritance (ilm al-fara'id). He died in Madinah in 45 AH, and Abu Hurayrah said at his funeral: 'Today the scholar of this Ummah has died.'