ʿUqbah and Ibn Isḥāq.
His wife was his cousin Fāṭimah, the sister of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.
Saʿīd embraced Islam before the Prophet ﷺ entered the house of al-Arqam ⦗1⦘.
Al-Bukhārī records—through three routes—from Ismāʿīl, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, who said:
Saʿīd ibn Zayd said, “I remember myself when ʿUmar had bound me and his sister on account of Islam; had anyone rushed upon you for what you did to ʿUthmān, he would have been in the right.” ⦗2⦘
We have already given a detailed discussion of this under the story of ʿUmar’s conversion.
Ibn Saʿd relates in his Ṭabaqāt, citing al-Wāqidī through his authorities, that they said:
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was awaiting the arrival of Quraysh’s caravan from Syria, he sent Ṭalḥah and Saʿīd ibn Zayd ten days before his own departure from Medina to gather intelligence about the caravan. They reached al-Ḥawrāʾ and remained there until the caravan passed by them along the coastal route.
The news reached the Prophet of Allah before
(1) Reported by al-Hakim, 3/438; Ibn Saʿd, 3/1/278; and by Ibn Hajar in al-Isabah, 4/188.
(2) Transmitted by al-Bukhari under nos. 3862 (Book of the Merits of the Ansar, chapter: “The Islam of Saʿid b. Zayd”), 3867 (same book), and 6942 (Book of Compulsion, chapter: “Whoever prefers beating, death or humiliation to disbelief”). Also recorded by al-Hakim, 3/440, who declared it sound, a judgement endorsed by al-Dhahabi.
Al-Bukhari’s first wording runs: Qutaybah b. Saʿid—Sufyan—Ismaʿil—Qays, who said: “I heard Saʿid b. Zayd b. ʿAmr b. Nufayl in the mosque of Kufa say: ‘By Allah, I remember when ʿUmar had me bound because of my Islam, before he himself had accepted Islam. Had anyone recoiled because of what you did to ʿUthman, he would have been fully entitled to recoil.’”
A second recension has the verb “inqad” (with nun and qaf) meaning “fell.”
Ibn Hajar comments in Fath al-Bari, 7/176: “He had me bound because of my Islam” means that ʿUmar tied him up to humiliate him and force him to recant. “Had anyone arfada” means “moved away from his place”; the variant “inqad” means “collapsed.” “Mahquqan” means “obligatory,” and al-Ismaʿili’s version reads “haqqiyan.”
Saʿid said this out of the enormity of ʿUthman’s murder, may Allah be pleased with him.