—he was mistaken; Muhammad, Maʿbad, and Yaḥyā were all born of the same mother. (1)
Al-Aʿmash narrated on the authority of Thābit ibn ʿUbayd, who said:
“Zayd ibn Thābit was the most cheerful of people when among his family, yet the most reserved and dignified in public.” (2)
Hishām narrated from Ibn Sīrīn who said:
“Zayd ibn Thābit once went out intending to attend the Friday prayer, but he met the people already returning. He therefore entered a house. When someone asked him about this, he said, ‘Whoever feels no shame before people will feel no shame before Allah.’”
Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd who said:
“When Zayd ibn Thābit died, Abū Hurayrah remarked, ‘The leading scholar of the ummah has passed away. Perhaps Allah will raise up in Ibn ʿAbbās a successor to him.’” (3)
Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated from ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār who said: “When Zayd died, we sat down.”
(1) Reported by al-Fasawi in his Ta rikh, 2/58, through Sulayman ibn Harb—Hammad—(the same chain); all its transmitters are reliable. The same chain is cited in Ta rikh Baghdad, 5/332-333, again via al-Fasawi. Ibn Sa d also records it in al-Tabaqat, 7/193, via Yazid ibn Harun— Abd al-Malik ibn Abi Sulayman—Anas ibn Sirin, who said: “Zayd ibn Thabit came to us—six brothers, among them Muhammad—and said, ‘If you wish, I can tell you which two of you share the same mother: these two, these two, and these two,’ and he did not make a single mistake.”
(2) Tahdhib Ibn Asakir, 5/453, relates that Thabit ibn Ubayd said: “I never saw anyone more playful at home yet more forbearing when sitting with his companions than Zayd.” Umar ibn al-Khattab used to say: “A man should be like a child with his family, but when his seriousness is required, he must be a man.” The phrase “wa-azimatuhu” means “among the most dignified and solemn of them”; az-zamīt denotes a calm, patient person who speaks little.
(3) Reported by Ibn Sa d, 2/362; al-Tabarani, no. 4750, through Arim—Hammad ibn Zayd—Yahya ibn Sa id; and by al-Hakim, 3/427-428, through Sulayman ibn Harb—Hammad ibn Zayd—Yahya ibn Sa id. All the transmitters are trustworthy, but Yahya ibn Sa id never heard directly from Abu Hurayrah.