The noble leader, the martyr, the warrior, the God-fearing man—Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qurashī al-ʿAdawī, the brother of the Commander of the Believers ʿUmar.

He was older than ʿUmar and had accepted Islam before him.

Brown-skinned and extremely tall, he fought at Badr and at the subsequent engagements. The Prophet ﷺ paired him in brotherhood with Maʿn ibn ʿAdī al-ʿAjlānī.

On the Day of Badr ʿUmar said to him, “Put on my coat of mail.”

He replied, “I seek from martyrdom what you yourself seek.”

So they both left it aside. On the Day of al-Yamāmah the Muslims’ standard was in his hand; he kept pressing forward with it into the enemy ranks, then fought until he was killed. The standard fell, and Sālim, the freedman of Abū Ḥudhayfah, picked it up.

ʿUmar mourned him and would say, “He embraced Islam before I did, and he was martyred before I was.”

He would also say, “Whenever the east wind blows, I catch the scent of Zayd.”

Those who transmitted from him include his nephew ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, who related the report about the prohibition of killing the house-dwelling serpents. (1)

His son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd transmitted two hadiths from him.

He was martyred in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, in the year 12 AH.

– Among the martyrs of al-Yamāmah

On that day some six hundred people were martyred, Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and others, among them:
Abū Ḥudhayfah ibn ʿUtbah al-ʿAbshamī; his freedman Sālim, one of the Qurʾān reciters; and Abū Marthad Kannāz