It is also reported that he died in the first year after the Hijrah. In that same year three leading figures of the pre-Islamic era—elders of Quraysh—passed away: al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil as-Sahmī, the father of ʿAmr; al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah al-Makhzūmī, the father of Khālid; and Abū Uḥayḥah Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ al-Umawī.
Al-Wāqidī said: Maʿmar narrated to me, from az-Zuhrī, from Abū Umāmah ibn Sahl, who said: “They were twelve naqībs, the foremost of whom was Asʿad ibn Zurārah.” (1)
And from ʿUmar, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “The Prophet ﷺ appointed Asʿad as chief over the naqībs.”
Khubaib ibn ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān related: “Asʿad ibn Zurārah and Dhakwān ibn ʿAbd Qays traveled to Mecca to meet ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah. When they heard about the Messenger of Allah, they went to him. He invited them to Islam and recited the Quran to them; they accepted Islam and were the first to bring it to Medina.” (2)
Umm Khārijah reported: an-Nawār, the mother of Zayd ibn Thābit, told me that she saw Asʿad ibn Zurārah—before the Prophet’s arrival—leading the people in the five daily prayers and holding the Friday service with them in a mosque he had built.
She added: “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived, he prayed in that very mosque and rebuilt it; it is his mosque to this day.” (3)
Isrāʾīl narrated from Manṣūr, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān, who said: “Asʿad ibn …”