As for the report transmitted by Ibn Jarīr, in which he says (1):

“ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumayd informed us; Kinānah ibn Jabalah (2) narrated to us, from Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān, from Ḥajjāj, from Qatādah, from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, who said: ‘I asked my father, Was Abū Bakr the first of you to enter Islam? He replied, No! Indeed, more than fifty people had become Muslim before him, though his Islam was the best among us.’ ”

This ḥadīth is objectionable in both its chain of transmission and its content.

Ibn Jarīr (3) went on to say: “Others have claimed that the first person to embrace Islam was Zayd ibn Ḥārithah.” He then related—through the route of al-Wāqidī—from Ibn Abī Dhʿib: “I asked al-Zuhrī, ‘Who was the first woman to accept Islam?’ He answered, ‘Khadījah.’ I said, ‘And the first man?’ He replied, ‘Zayd ibn Ḥārithah.’ ”

ʿUrwah, Sulaymān ibn Yasār, and several others transmitted the same view: that the first male to enter Islam was Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. Abū Ḥanīfah ﵁ harmonised these opinions by explaining that the first free adult male was Abū Bakr, the first woman was Khadījah, the first freedman was Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, and the first youth was ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—may Allah be pleased with them all.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (4) said: “When Abū Bakr accepted Islam and proclaimed it openly, he began to invite others to Allah. He was a man to whom his people gravitated—beloved and gentle. Among Quraysh he was the most knowledgeable of their genealogies and the best informed about their virtues and faults. He was a merchant, of upright character and famed generosity. The men of his clan would seek his company for many reasons: his knowledge, his trade, and the pleasantness of his conversation. He therefore called to Islam those among his people whom he trusted, those who visited and sat with him. According to what has reached me, it was through him that al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf—may Allah be pleased with them—embraced Islam. They went with Abū Bakr to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; he presented Islam to them, recited the Qur’an for them, and informed them of the rights of Islam, so they believed. These eight individuals were the forerunners in Islam: they affirmed the truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and believed in what had come from Allah.

Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Wāqidī (8) said: “Ḍaḥḥāk ibn ʿUthmān narrated to me, from Makhramah ibn Sulaymān al-Walabī, from …"