A Boy Who Would Not Go Back

Al-Zubayr was the son of Safiyyah bint 'Abd al-Muttalib, the Prophet's ﷺ paternal aunt, and of al-'Awwam, brother of Khadijah. He was therefore a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ and a nephew of Khadijah, and one of the very first to believe, while still a boy or in his teens.

The early biographers say his uncle tried to turn him back by tying him in a mat and smoking him, saying "Go back to the religion of your fathers." Al-Zubayr is reported to have replied that he would never return to disbelief.

He later migrated to Abyssinia and then to Madinah. A well-known report says that when a rumour spread in Makkah that the Prophet ﷺ had been killed, al-Zubayr, still young, drew his sword and went out to find him, and was the first to draw a sword in the path of Allah.