Sa'id ibn Zayd

Sa'id ibn Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl was a Companion (sahabi, a person who knew the Prophet Muhammad) from the Adi clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, born around 593 CE (the year is a traditional estimate). His father, Zayd ibn Amr, is remembered in tradition as a hanif — a pre-Islamic monotheist held to have rejected idol worship without following Judaism or Christianity. Sa'id is reported to have embraced Islam very early, before 614, together with his wife Fatima, a sister of Umar ibn al-Khattab.

Sira (biographical) literature gives Sa'id a famous role in Umar's own conversion: the tradition holds that Umar, coming to confront his sister and brother-in-law, was instead moved by hearing the Qur'an in their home and accepted Islam. This is a reported narrative of the early biographers, not an independently documented event.

Sa'id emigrated to Medina with the Muslim community in 622. Sources report that he missed the Battle of Badr because the Prophet had sent him (with Talha) on a scouting mission, yet he was still granted a share of its spoils. Later traditions place him in the conquest of Syria, and report that under the caliphate of Mu'awiya he served as governor of Kufa.

In the Sunni view, Sa'id is counted among the "ten promised paradise" (al-ashara al-mubashshara), a list reported partly on his own authority; this grouping is a Sunni framing and is not treated in the same form by Shia communities.

He is reported to have died near Medina, in the valley of al-Aqiq, and was buried in the city. The year of his death is given variously in the tradition as 50, 51, or 58 AH (c. 671 CE).