ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Thaqafī said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to us, from Abū Salamah, and Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, from his father, who said:

I once went out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a scorching day while he had me riding behind him, heading toward one of the stone idols. We had slaughtered a sheep for him and cooked it well. On the way we met Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl, and each of the two men greeted the other with the pre-Islamic salutation. The Prophet ﷺ said to him, “O Zayd, why do I see that your people have taken such a strong aversion to you?” Zayd replied, “By Allah, O Muḥammad, it is not because I have wronged them in the least; but I left home in search of the true religion. I first came to the rabbis of Fadak and found that they worship Allah yet associate partners with Him, so I said, ‘This is not the religion I am seeking.’ I then travelled to Syria and found them worshipping Allah while still ascribing partners to Him. As I was leaving, an old man among them said, ‘You are asking about a religion that we know no one practices except an elderly man in al-Jazīrah.’ I went to that man. When he saw me he asked, ‘Where are you from?’ I said, ‘From the people who serve the House of Allah.’ He said, ‘From the land of thorns and acacias? The religion you seek has already appeared in your homeland—a prophet has been sent, his star has risen, and everyone you have encountered is in error.’

“I felt nothing of that at the time. Then the food tray was set before him and Zayd asked, ‘What is this, O Muḥammad?’ He answered, ‘A sheep slaughtered for an idol.’ Zayd said, ‘I would never eat anything over which the name of Allah has not been pronounced.’ The two of them then parted ways.” He went on to recount the rest of the report.

Al-Layth narrated, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr, who said: “I saw Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl standing with his back against the Kaʿbah, proclaiming, ‘People of Quraysh, by Allah, not one of you is upon the religion of Abraham except me!’ He used to rescue infant girls who were being buried alive. Whenever a man intended to kill his daughter he would say, ‘Stop! Do not kill her; I will take responsibility for her upkeep.’ He would keep the child, and when she grew up he would say to her father, ‘If you wish, I will return her to you; if you wish, I will continue to support her.’” This is a sound hadith.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr also reported, from Abū Salamah, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, from his father, that Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl died before Revelation came to the Prophet ﷺ. Afterward the Prophet ﷺ said, “On the Day of Resurrection he will be raised as a nation all by himself.” Its chain of transmission is fair.

I was informed by Abū al-Fakhr Asʿad, who said: Fāṭimah told us; she said: Ibn Rīḍah informed us; he said: al-Ṭabarānī told us; he said: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz told us; he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rajāʾ told us; he said: al-Masʿūdī told us, from Nufayl ibn Hishām ibn Saʿīd ibn Zayd, from