Then Abū Ḥayyah al-Māzinī came with a group of the Anṣār and said, “Nothing can be set right with you!” Heated words passed between them, and he, together with those who were with him, seized Zayd by the front of his cloak. Some other Anṣār happened to pass by; when the first group saw them, they let him go.

One of the men said to Abū Ḥayyah, “Would you do this to a man such that, were he to die tonight, you would not even know the share of your father’s estate that is yours?” (1)

Al-Zuhrī said, “Had ʿUthmān and Zayd both died at that time, the knowledge of the farāʾiḍ (laws of inheritance) would have perished; a period came upon the people when no one knew this science but the two of them.” Al-Dārimī recorded this report (2).

Jaʿfar ibn Burqān related: I heard al-Zuhrī say, “Had Zayd ibn Thābit not committed the farāʾiḍ to writing, I would have thought that this knowledge would vanish from the people.” (3)

Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir narrated, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn al-Aswad, that Mālik said, “The leading authority among us after ʿUmar was Zayd ibn Thābit; after Zayd, the leading authority was Ibn ʿUmar.” (4)

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿIjlī said, “The people follow Zayd’s recitation and Zayd’s rulings on inheritance.”