the one who penned the master copy of the muṣḥaf that is kept in al-Shām, doing so at the instruction of ʿUthmān; the handwriting, as I have seen it, is exceptionally fine and bold.

Zayd ibn Thābit was among the sharpest of men. He mastered the language and script of the Jews in fifteen days. [Abū’l-Ḥasan ibn al-Barrāʾ said: he also learned Persian from the envoy of the Chosroes in eighteen days.]

(1) He further acquired Abyssinian, Greek, and Coptic from the servants of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Al-Wāqidī said: His first military engagement was the Battle of the Trench when he was fifteen years old.

In the hadith narrated by Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī (2): “The most knowledgeable of them in the laws of inheritance is Zayd ibn Thābit.”

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) appointed him as judge.

Masrūq said: Zayd ibn Thābit was among those firmly grounded in knowledge (3).

Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr (4) reported—through Abū Salamah—from Ibn ʿAbbās—that he held Zayd ibn Thābit’s stirrup for him. Zayd said to him, “Step back, cousin of the Messenger of Allah.” He replied, “No. This is how we honor our scholars and elders (5).”

Al-Aʿmash narrated—on the authority of Thābit ibn ʿUbayd (6)—that Zayd ibn Thābit was one of the most cheerful of people in his household, yet among the most dignified when he went out to meet men (7).

Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn said: Zayd ibn Thābit once went out to perform the prayer and found the people already returning. He hid himself from them and remarked, “Whoever feels no shame before people will feel no shame before Allah (8).”