Zayd ibn Harithah
Zayd ibn Harithah (Arabic: زيد بن حارثة) or Zayd mawla Muhammad (c. 581 – 629 CE) was a companion of Muhammad who was at one stage regarded as his (adoptive) son. He is the only companion whose name appears in the Qur'an (33:37).
Childhood
Zayd is said to have been ten years younger than Muhammad, suggesting a birth-year of c. 581. He is also said to have been 55 (lunar) years old at his death in 629, indicating a birthdate of 576. He is described as “a short, flat-nosed man, of a very dark brown skin.”
He was born into the Udhra branch of the Kalb tribe in the Najd (highlands) of central Arabia; he claimed a pedigree twelfth in descent from Udhra ibn Zayd al-Lat, who was in turn alleged to have been a great-great-grandson of Kalb ibn Wabara. Zayd's mother, Suda bint Thaalaba, was from the Maan branch of the Tayy tribe.
When Zayd was a young boy of an age at which he could be a servant he accompanied his mother on a visit to her family. While they were staying with the Maan tribe, horsemen from the Qayn tribe raided their tents and kidnapped Zayd. They took him to the market at Ukkaz and sold him as a slave for 400 dirhams.
