Among the clearest signs of Zayd’s standing is that Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq relied on him to write out the Noble Qur’an on separate sheets, gathering it from the memorization of men, from shoulder-blades, and from parchments. Those sheets were kept for a time: they were first with al-Ṣiddīq, then passed to ʿUmar al-Farūq, and afterwards remained with the Mother of the Believers Ḥafṣah. Later, ʿUthmān commissioned Zayd ibn Thābit, together with several men of Quraysh, to prepare the ʿUthmānic codex. From that codex there are now on earth more than two million copies, and—praise be to Allah—no Qur’an remains in the community’s hands except this one.
The scholars have differed over the year in which Zayd, may Allah be pleased with him, died:
Al-Wāqidī, the leading historian, said he died in 45 AH at the age of fifty-six; this dating was followed by Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr, Shabāb, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Numayr. Abū ʿUbayd likewise said he died in 45 AH, though he added, “The year 56 AH is the better-attested.” Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī held that he died in 51 AH, while al-Madāʾinī, al-Haytham, and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn placed his death in 55 AH. Abū al-Zinād also said 45 AH—and Allah knows best.
Hafs related from ʿĀṣim, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: “I never differed with ʿAlī in any part of his recitation. I would collect ʿAlī’s variant readings and then present them to Zayd during the seasons in Medina. They differed only over the word al-tābūt: Zayd recited it with a hāʾ, whereas ʿAlī recited it with a tāʾ.” ⦗1⦘