Zayd ibn Dathinna al-Ansari

Zayd ibn Dathinna al-Ansari (died 4 AH / 625 CE) was a Companion of the Prophet ﷺ who was captured along with Khubayb ibn Adi during the treacherous Rajii incident and was brought to Mecca to be executed. His story, like Khubayb's, became one of the defining accounts of Companion loyalty and steadfastness in the earliest seerah literature.

He and Khubayb were among a group of Companions who had gone out as teachers to tribes who had requested them, only to be ambushed and either killed or captured. Zayd was sold in Mecca to Safwan ibn Umayyah, whose father Umayyah ibn Khalaf had been killed at Badr — the sale itself being an act of purchasing captives for the purpose of vengeance.

When Zayd was brought out to be killed, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb — who was not yet Muslim — asked him mockingly: "I ask you by Allah, Zayd — would you not prefer that Muhammad were in your place and you were at home with your family?" Zayd replied: "By Allah, I would not prefer that Muhammad be pricked by even a thorn while I sit among my family." Abu Sufyan reportedly said he had never seen any people love their leader the way Muhammad's Companions loved Muhammad.

He was killed by Safwan ibn Umayyah's slave Nistas near Mecca. The two companions — Zayd and Khubayb — were killed around the same time and their stories are always told together. Their loyalty to the Prophet ﷺ even in the face of death became a touchstone for discussions of Islamic devotion.