The Madīnan School: Khārijah ibn Zayd ibn Thābit
He is Abū Zayd Khārijah ibn Zayd ibn Thābit al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī an-Najjārī (raḥimahullāh), one of the Seven Fuqahāʾ of Madīnah. Born in Madīnah around the year 29 or 30 AH, toward the end of the Khilāfah of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. He was the son of the great Companion Zayd ibn Thābit (raḍiyallāhu ʿanh), the scribe of the Revelation, the compiler of the Qurʾān under Abū Bakr and ʿUthmān, and the most knowledgeable of the Companions in the laws of inheritance. His mother was Umm Saʿd (Jamīlah) bint Saʿd ibn ar-Rabīʿ, from a noble Anṣārī household.
Khārijah grew up in a home steeped in knowledge and service to the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. He narrated from his father Zayd ibn Thābit, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, from his mother, from Umm al-ʿAlāʾ al-Anṣāriyyah, and from others among the senior generation. Though he was not among the most prolific narrators of ḥadīth, he was distinguished by deep understanding, especially in the science of farāʾiḍ (inheritance) and in the practical application of fiqh to people’s lives.
One of his most notable projects was the systematic division of inheritances. Muṣʿab az-Zubayrī said: “Khārijah ibn Zayd and Ṭalḥah ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAwf, in their time, were the ones whose fatwā was sought and to whose opinion people referred. They would divide the inheritances among the rightful heirs — of houses, date-palms, and wealth — and they would write the legal documents for the people.” This practical service to the community was a hallmark of his scholarship: knowledge that ordered the affairs of the living according to the Book of Allāh.
The early authorities praised him highly. Abū az-Zinād counted him among the Seven Fuqahāʾ of Madīnah. Ibn Saʿd said: “He was thiqah and abundant in ḥadīth.” Al-ʿIjlī said: “A Madīnan Tābiʿī, thiqah.” Ibn Khirāsh said: “Khārijah ibn Zayd is greater than every other person named Khārijah.” Adh-Dhahabī described him as “the faqīh, the imām, the son of the imām, and one of the seven famous fuqahāʾ.”
He lived through the turbulent later years of the Umayyad period. While some of his brothers perished in the events of al-Ḥarrah, Khārijah survived and continued teaching and giving fatwā. Toward the end of his life he withdrew from people, preferring solitude and worship. He once saw in a dream that he had built seventy steps; when he finished them they collapsed. He understood this to mean that he had completed seventy years of age, and he died in that year.
He passed away in Madīnah in the year 99 or 100 AH, during the Khilāfah of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. When the news reached ʿUmar, he sought forgiveness for him, struck one hand upon the other, and said: “A breach has been made in Islām.”
His fatāwā, his mastery of inheritance, his service in writing the legal affairs of the people, and his place among the Seven Fuqahāʾ form an essential part of the Madīnan school.
(Named by an-Nasāʾī among the Tābiʿīn of the fuqahāʾ of Madīnah, after Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān.)
