Kharijah ibn Zayd

Kharijah ibn Zayd ibn Thabit (d. 100 AH / 718 CE) was one of the Seven Fuqaha (jurists) of Medina among the Tabiin and the son of the most famous Quran scribe in Islamic history, Zayd ibn Thabit al-Ansari. Having grown up in the household of the man who led both the Abu Bakr and Uthman Quran compilations, Kharijah absorbed from his earliest years the rigorous scholarly and pietistic tradition of the Ansar. His full name is Kharijah ibn Zayd ibn Thabit al-Ansari al-Khazraji.

Kharijah studied directly under his father Zayd ibn Thabit and absorbed from him a deep knowledge of the Quran, its recitation, and the laws of inheritance (ilm al-faraid) for which his father was particularly renowned. He also transmitted hadith from many of the Prophet's companions, including Zayd ibn Thabit, Uthman ibn Affan, Abdullah ibn Umar, Aisha, and Abu Hurairah. His narrations are found in all the major hadith collections, and his reliability as a transmitter was well regarded by subsequent hadith critics.

Kharijah became the leading Medinan authority on inheritance law, carrying forward his father's famous specialty. When people from across the Muslim lands had complex questions about how estates should be divided under Islamic law, Kharijah was among the first people consulted. His legal opinions on faraid were widely transmitted and are cited in the major fiqh literature of all four Sunni schools.

As one of the Seven Fuqaha of Medina, Kharijah worked alongside Said ibn al-Musayyib, Urwah ibn az-Zubair, Ubaidullah ibn Abdullah ibn Utbah, al-Qasim ibn Muhammad, Salim ibn Abdullah, and Sulayman ibn Yasar in maintaining Medina as the premier center of Islamic legal scholarship in the first century after the Prophet. These seven scholars are recognized as the bridge between the companion generation and the great codifiers like Imam Malik, and their collective legal opinions form the backbone of the Medinan juristic tradition. Kharijah died in approximately 100 AH (718 CE).