1. Muhammad and Zaid bin Harithah

what about those aspects of mercy in his character then, he asked?

  i said: the prophet's biographies tell us that muhammad married his first wife, khadijah bint khuwailed, before the divine call. khadijah had a nephew called hakeem bin h'izam bin khuwailed, who was a merchant trading in all kinds of goods. on one of his business trips, he returned from bilad al-sham (greater syria) with a shipment of slaves, among them a boy called zaid bin harithah who just reached the age of being employed as footman or attendant. khadijah, married to muhammad then, visited her nephew and hakeem wanted to show his respect for her. choose any one of these boys and he is yours, hakeem said to khadijah. she chose zaid and took him home with her. muhammad saw the boy and his tender heart brimming with feelings of mercy and humaneness felt sorry for him. he begged of her to give the boy over to him, and she did. muhammad instantly set the boy free and rid him of the mantle of slavery. he made zaid a member of his own family and treated him like a father. zaid lived his whole life as one of muhammad's household, always showing love, admiration, trust and gratitude for this generous man.

  accounts of the prophet's sirah tell us that before he was captured and sold in the slave market, zaid had lived with his mother sa'da and his father harithah. the parents belonged to different tribes. sa'ada took zaid with her on a visit to her people and while she was with them, the tribe was raided and plundered as was common in desert life at that time. the attackers took zaid from his mother and sold him in one of the slave markets called hubasha souk. the boy was still eight years old and the buyer was khadijah's nephew, hakeem.

  zaid's father, haritha, was sorrowed and grieved. he never rested since the kidnapping of his son and he went all over arabia looking for him. he wrote a touching poem about the disaster that befell him:

for zaid my eyes out i have cried, and know not lives he still or died.

i know not what on earth he's done, alive to hope or for good gone?

i know not, lord, about my son, and will forever be wondering on:

on plainland perished my only child? or died alone on a mountainside?

oh return to me my darling lad, and glad i'd give this whole world wide.

the sunrise brings him to me in the morn; the sunset too as the day's worn;

and memories within at noon are reborn as winds in the wild are blown.

oh i'm grieved for you and sorrowed and sad, but by my almighty god

i'll roam for you and ride like mad; never tired the camels or i would stand,

but with utmost speed and from end to end, we shall be ranging the land:

and what if death on the way i find? to hopeless doom is damned mankind.

  the bereaved father never stopped looking for his kidnapped son. he moved across arabia going from one area and one marketplace to another in search of his zaid or at least for news about him.

  at long last he heard the good news that his son is in makkah with a member of the 'quraish tribe. instantly the father and a brother of his headed for makkah, asked for zaid and found him with muhammad bin abdullah bin abdul mu'taleb.

  haritha met his son zaid in muhammad's house. he was as overjoyed as a parched man in the desert stumbling across a well of cool water. he asked muhammad to give him back his son for any ransom money he'd ask.

  do you know, father stephano, what did muhammad say, a mercy to humanity that he was?

what?

  he turned to haritha and his brother and said: would you be contented with something much better than a ransom? and what's that, they asked? i give zaid the choice- if he wishes to go with you, so be it; if he decides to stay with me, you respect his choice. more than fair, they said. muhammad summoned zaid and asked him: who are those two people? zaid said: this is my father haritha bin sharaheel, and this is my uncle ka'b bin sharaheel. you are free to choose, zaid, muhammad said. you can go back with them or stay on with me.

  do you know, father stephano, what the boy said after having at last met with his long lost father?

what did he say?

  i'd rather stay with you, zaid said to the kind and compassionate muhammad!

  haritha was shocked. you prefer slavery to your own father and mother, to your homeland and to your own people and tribe, zaid?! oh what i've seen from this man, father, zaid replied, would never make me want to part with him.

  would the boy have preferred muhammad to his own father had he not found with him more mercy, kindness and humaneness, i asked?

  after a moment's consideration father stephano said: if muhammad, even before his prophetic call, was rough and hardhearted, the boy would not have preferred him to his own father, surely.

and do you know what happened in the end, i asked?

  obvious, i suppose, father stephano replied. zaid preferred to stay with muhammad, even if it meant a form of slavery, rather than return with his father and live in complete freedom.

much more than that, i said.

what?

  muhammad's humaneness and mercy transcended zaid to include his father harithah.

how?

  muhammad felt that zaid's father was disappointed after all he had been through looking for his son. to put his mind at ease, muhammad took zaid by the hand and went to the elders of 'quraish and said: 'bear witness, 'qurashi people, that this is my adopted son zaid, heir and beneficiary to all i have.' of course, the adoption system was well in place during al-jahiliah and before the advent of islam. the father haritha, that is, was reassured about the future of his son. he was pleased with the new status of his beloved zaid and, with the peace of mind that no harm would touch his son, harithah left makkah.

what happened to zaid later on, father stephano asked?

  he was called zaid bin muhammad from then on. he lived happily with his new father till god entrusted and honoured muhammad (pbuh) with the divine revelation and the islamic mission. zaid believed him and was one of the first people to embrace islam, having known muhammad's truthfulness and experienced his mercy and humaneness at close range.

  people kept calling him zaid bin muhammad till the venerable 'quranic verse came down to institute the rules and rights of adopted children in islam. it instructed muslims to "proclaim their real parentage. that will be more equitable and fair in the sight of god. if you did not know their fathers, then (they are) your brethren in faith…"^([1]) zaid regained his identity and proclaimed himself zaid bin haritha again.^([2])