How Islam Ended Jahiliyyah's Adoption Practices
The Story of Zayd ibn Muhammad: Abolishing Jahiliyyah Practices of Adoption and Slavery
Summary
This lecture from the Muslim Community Center of Tucson discusses the story of Zayd ibn Muhammad and his son Usama from Riyadul Saliheen's chapter on patience. The speaker explains the historical context of slavery and adoption during the pre-Islamic period (Jahiliyyah) and how Islam transformed these practices. Zayd was gifted as a slave to the Prophet Muhammad before his prophethood, but chose to stay with the Prophet, who then freed and adopted him. The lecture details how adoption practices in Jahiliyyah were abolished through Quranic revelation, particularly when the Prophet was commanded to marry Zaynab (Zayd's divorced wife), which broke the social taboo against such unions. This single action served to eradicate both illegitimate adoption practices and certain slavery customs. The speaker emphasizes how Allah honored Zayd by mentioning him by name in the Quran—the only companion mentioned by name—as compensation for losing his adoptive lineage.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Alhamdulillah.
[Silence]
Continuing in authored by the third chapter, the chapter of patience in the 29th narration he says,.
[Silence]
This narration is on the authority of Abi Z Abu Zade Zade. These two ZB and his son were referred to commonly as as the love of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam or the beloved of the prophet and the son of his beloved. Zbar was a slave and it was a sla he was a slave who was gifted to the prophet sallall.aii Wasam to him by his beloved wife before Islam. And he essentially grew up in the household of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. And as we've mentioned before, if you'll all remember that during the days of Jahya, a person could become a slave in any number of ways. It wasn't many of the ways or or some ways a person would become a slave would be known. Others or many would be illegitimate ways. So for instance, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions one of the ways of jahyah in the Quran that a person could become a slave that was outlawed in Islam and outlawed by any decent human standards. And that is in the story of Ysefam. You have a caravan that comes by, finds a young boy. Instead of trying to help this boy get home, they sell him into slavery and into bondage. This is a a story as old as as time as they say. And so oftent times you'd find people would be slaves, grow up as slaves, be purchased and sold as slaves. And it would not be really known how this person became a slave. Perhaps this person was found as a small child and even kidnapped and sold into slavery. Perhaps a person owes debt and they give their child up into slavery in place of this debt. Or perhaps a people are overpowered by another tribe and their sons will be sold into slavery etc. Many many different ways in Islam it was reversed. This whole process was reversed. There's only one way a person can legitimately become a slave and that is that they are captured on the battlefield actively fighting against the Muslim and they are taken as PS prisoners of war and there are many many ways of becoming free as a matter of fact one of the most common encouragements throughout the Quran and Sunnah is freeing slaves. slaves. Why? In order to give people the best opportunity and and to lean towards the tendency of mercy. However, just absolute emancipation or if the prophet sallall.aii wasallam came and said no more slavery in Islam or you know all slaves must be freed immediately. This would have shocked the economy at the time. This would have put a lot of slaves out of a home cuz not all of them were ready to become free. And so is one of those cases. Hara was purchased by he was gifted. She gifted Z to her husband the prophet Muhammad sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam before he was a prophet and he grew up in the prophet's home sallallahu alaihi wasallam and when Z became older and the prophet himself became older sai wasam and he had other children suddenly one day the tribe of Zed show And a man named Hara shows up. Who is Hara? He says that he is Zade's father. So we can surmise that somehow Zade found his way into the system as a slave. Legitimately or illegitimately, we do not know. But we know that once he was u of age and able to able to make his own decisions, his uncle and his father showed up one day and said, "This is our son. You have our son here." And so the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam. This is before prophethood. Before he was a prophet, he made them a very reasonable deal. He said, "If Zade wants to go with you, I'll let him go. And if he wants to stay, I'll let him stay." And so Zade who chose to stay with the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. Upon making that choice, the prophet freed him and adopted him as his son. Now adoption at that time in Jahia it was full adoption. When you adopt a boy, it meant that this boy takes your name, takes your lineage, and takes all the rulings of a biological son. This is the way they did it in Jahya. And so this is incorrect. And as kind as this may be to one person, it is disruptive of lineage. It is disruptive of many other things and balances that Allah insists must be kept. And so he was always referred to from that point on as Zin Muhammad. And this was a great honor for him even before Islam. Even before the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam was a prophet. We fast forward through the years and Zade has is married to Zanab and Zade has a son of his own and he names his son Usama. Now was and was in the position of his grandson, right? as was the case in the time of Jiley with with regards to the the traditions of adoption. And so he was referred to as Usam Zbin Muhammad and his father was Zbin Muhammad. And they referred to to them or he would refer to them as that he was the beloved of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam, the son of his beloved. They were very close. We fast forward and when we look at the Quran, we see that many companions were mentioned by description. Many of them Abu Bakr is mentioned by description in some estimates as being over 30 times or even more by description. However, by name, no companions were mentioned by name. And when the time around the time of around the we're not sure exactly what year but somewhere between the fifth and seventh year after hijra adoption became prohibited in Islam and anyone who was adopted he was to be referred referred to by his biological father. No more reference to an adopted father's lineage. No more claim to an adopted father's lineage. It doesn't mean that whoever had adopted a son or a daughter, they threw him out in the street. It doesn't mean that. It just means that the lineage and the rulings of the adopted are not the same as the rulings of a biological child. Right? And so one of those people or we could actually say two of those people who were greatly affected by this was Z and his son Usama because he was always referred to as Zbin Muhammad. Now that's a great honor and then suddenly the honor is taken away from him. It would seem and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala insisted that the laws of adoption as practiced in be done away with and be eradicated. And the best way to do that is not just to abstractly change the laws, but to have the prophet himself practice the correct way in order that all these taboss be abolished. And one of those was, as we said, a biological son takes the or a an adopted son in Jahia takes the rulings of a biological son. And so just you could not marry your biological son's divorce. Likewise, a man could not marry his biological son's divorce, divorced wife. Likewise in Jahya it was incredibly taboo for a man to marry his adopted sons divorce. And so Zan prior to being she was divorced by divorced by Zb and the prophet sallall.aii wasallam was commanded to marry Zanab. He wasn't allowed to marry Zanab. He was commanded by Allah to marry Zanab. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that Allah himself is the one who married Zanab to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. She was the only one of his wives that he was married to without a guardian. her guardian was considered to be Allah himself subhanahu wa ta'ala and Zanab found that point of pride for her and so in this action this was abolished adoption in the way that it was practiced in the time of Jahya and slavery in the way that it was practiced in Jahya in one act was abolished. However, we still have seemingly suffering a loss in this whole issue. Why? Because he was called Zadbin Muhammad and now he is referred to as Zinhita. And it almost seems he is his his lineage is displaced overnight for no fault of his own. And so Allah subhanahu.
[Arabic recitation]
Mentioned by name in he is the only companion mentioned by name in all of the Quran.
[Silence]
[Arabic recitation]
And so we see that zade as as a as a substitute or in order to not have him feel any kind of way. his his his name is no longer Z Muhammad but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave him something better than that and that is that he mentioned his name and he's the only companion mentioned by name in the Quran and so is now referred to as Zbar however he is also the only companion mentioned by name in the Quran in so his name is mentioned in the Quran as a substitute or as a replacement for what was taken from him. And so these two are known as known as the beloved of the prophet, the son of his, the beloved, the son of his beloved. And both of them have a very illustrious history in Islam and with the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. We'll mention in more detail tomorrow. Subhanah. Subhanahu wa ta'ala.