The Monotheist before the Message

Long before the Messenger of God (pbuh)  cleansed the Kaaba of idols - who were known as the partners of God - upon his victorious return to Mecca, returning the shrine to the monotheism of his father Abraham (pbuh), and even before the start of his mission of prophethood - there was a man who during the polytheist season of Hajj would have his back on the Kaabah and shout out that none of them were on the path of their father Abraham (pbuh).

He used to recite his poem:

Am I to worship one lord or a thousand?
If there are as many as you claim,
I renounce al-Lat and al-Uzza, both of them,
as any strong-minded person would.
I will not worship al-Uzza and her two daughters …
I will not worship Hubal, though he was our lord
in the days when I had little sense.

 He was one of a group of 4 monotheists that decided that they wanted to follow the pure religion of Abraham (pbuh) and reject the paganism and idol worship that was prevalent around them. But they had no prophet of God to guide them. 3 of this group converted to unitarian Christianity while one, our man, decided to travel and research and submit himself to one true God in the way of Abraham (pbuh).

The Prophet (pbuh) met this man in a place near tan’eem and served him some food and this man said, “I do not eat from what was slaughtered in the name of other than Allah. Oh son of my brother, do not eat from this.” Zayd ibn Haaritha (rali) says, “From that day onward, the Prophet never ate any of the meat of Quraysh.”

He did not eat carrion, blood or anything that had been slaughtered for an idol. He told the Quraysh: "Allah has created the sheep and he has sent the rain and the grass for it; yet you don't mention Allah's name when you slaughter it."

Who was this man who advised even the to-be Messenger of God (pbuh) to not consume meat that was sacrificed to other than God?

 The Prophet (pbuh) knew this man in his childhood and he was fascinated by him. The Prophet (pbuh) never worshipped idols and so did his dear friend Abu Bakr (rali) and his wife Khadija (rali). But at the same time they were not challenging idol worship in society because the Propher (pbuh) had not been called to do that. Yet this man was continuously annoying the Quraish for their worshipping of idols.

Asmaa bint Abi Bakr (rali), as a young curious girl, heard this man praying in front of the Ka’aba saying, “Oh Allah, if only I knew which of the ways where most pleasing to you I would worship you in accordance with that way but I don't know.” He would make sujood to the Ka’aba not knowing anything of salah. He was trying to be loyal to the Creator God and Him Alone.

Once the Prophet (pbuh) asked him: Why do I see that your people hate you so much? He said I left their religion and their idols for the religion and God of Ibrahim. “My God is the God of Ibrahim. My religion is the religion of Ibrahim"

Not only did he reject the idol-worship in order to turn his face to the worship of the one true unseen God - he also differed in morality to the people around him. He never committed zina (saying that it would decrease rizq), never drank alcohol, never ate the meat of those sacrificed in the name other than God - and even in the words of Asma (rali), he used to give "life to the girls being buried alive". He opposed infanticide.

He would say to the father as he was about to kill her - "do not kill her for I will take care of her!". Once she would grow old enough to be married: he would say to the father: if you like I can return her to you and you can find her a suitor, or I can take care of that as well!

From where did he get that fitrah, that pure pristine uncorrupted sense of right and wrong? He’s living his life in accordance with the religion that would come after him and that was the sincerity of the way of Ibrahim (as). In each and one of us, in the depth of our souls there is the call of the fitrah - to worship the Creator and to do good.

But who was this man? This monotheist even before the dawn of the message of Islam? This man who was adamant in following the way of Ibrahim (pbuh)? He was none other than Zaid ibn Amr ibn Nufayl !! Have you not heard about him before?

He (rali) went to As-Sham / Greater Syria, not for trade but to find out the truth of the world and of God. He met many Christian priests and Jewish rabbis but was never really satisfied with the answers he is given. He doesn't have the support of his family. His uncle, Al-Khattab (father of Umar (rali)), tortures him and says don't come around and if you come around you'll be beaten. He instructed people to beat Zaid if he's seen entering into Makkah again.

His wife would become stressed every time he would say that he is going to Sham. Because while the people would go to Sham for trade, Zaid would go out to learn more and to try to answer these questions nagging at him about revelation and about the oneness of God and Ibrahim (as). Then at one time he asked for the most knowledgeable priest and this time he got the news that God would send a prophet to revive the way of Abraham. He’s told he’s coming out from the same place he left (Mecca)

So Zaid gets excited, he turns back towards Makkah, but he has no idea that that young man Muhammad (pbuh) who he used to call Ibn Akhi, my cousin. He had no idea that that Muhammad (pbuh) was going to be the one that was going to be the Messenger, but when he's making his way back to Makkah so that he can await for this prophet, he was captured and killed in a land called Balqaa’ around 5 years before revelation.

Just before his murder he is said to have made a dua: Oh Allah if you forbade me from the companionship of of your Prophet, don’t forbid it from my son Saeed (rali). Saeed (rali) went on to become one of the most prominent companion of the Messenger of God (pbuh). In fact he was one of the 10 promised Jannah. Atiqah, the daughter of Zaid, too becomes Muslim and lives a very long life. She married multiple times finally ending up with Hassan (rali)

Amir Ibn Rabee’a says Zaid ibn Amr (rali) told me: I am waiting for a prophet from the children of Ishmael. I believe in him and will support him and testify he is a prophet. But I have a feeling I won’t live to see him. If you live long enough to see him, give him my salaam. Amir ibn Rabee’a said when I became Muslim I gave the prophet his salaam. The Prophet said salaam back to him, made dua for mercy for him, and said I saw him in paradise dragging his garments.

In another authentic narration the Prophet (pbuh) said "I entered into paradise and I saw that Allah has reserved two levels of paradise for one man, for Zaid". That Allah gave him two levels of paradise all by himself.

When Waraqa bin Naufal, the elder cousin of Khadijah (rali) who was also a monotheist and a Christian monk, and used to accompany him in his travels to Syria, came to know about his death he cried so much and recited an eulogy in his honor:

You were altogether on the right path, Ibn Amr;

You have escaped Hell’s burning oven

by serving the one and only God

and abandoning vain idols

for the mercy of God reaches men

though they be sixty valleys deep below the earth!

Saeed and Umar (rali) asked the Prophet (pbuh): Ya Rasulullah, can we seek forgiveness for Zaid? And the Prophet said: Seek forgiveness for him, for by Allah I saw on the Day of Judgment as the Prophets line up with their ummah behind them, with their nations behind them. 124,000 prophets all line up on the Day of Judgment, behind them are their nations. Some prophets have one person. Some have ten. Some have a thousand. Some have 80. The Prophet (pbuh)has the largest nation. After him the nation of Musa (pbuh). The Prophet (pbuh) said  that he (Zaid) would be resurrected all by himself as an ummah. The man is an ummah, he's a nation. And in an authentic narration, he said he stood between me and Jesus (the son of Mary) - alone as an ummah by himself!

Such was the case of the monotheist who surrendered to the will of the One True God even before the Message of Islam and actively called for the restoration of the religion of Abraham (pbuh).