ZAIDĪYAH (زيدية). A Shīʿah sect. Those who followed Zaid the son of ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusain instead of the other son Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq. [[SHIʿAH].]
ZAIG͟H (زيغ). Lit. “Turned aside” (from the Truth). It occurs in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iii. 5, 6]: “In whose hearts is perversity.… O Lord, pervert not our hearts.”
ZAINAB (زينب). The daughter of K͟huzaimah and the widow of ʿUbaid, Muḥammad’s cousin, who was slain at Badr. She married Muḥammad in the third year of the Hijrah. Zainab was renowned for her kindness to the poor, and was called Ummu ʾl-Masākīn, “the mother of the poor,” from her care of destitute converts. She and K͟hadījah were the only wives of the Prophet who died before him.
ZAINAB (زينب). The daughter of Jaḥsh and the divorced wife of Muḥammad’s adopted son Zaid. Being the wife of an adopted son, she was unlawful to the Prophet, but a pretended revelation (see Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxiii. 37]) settled the difficulty, and Muḥammad married her. [[MUHAMMAD].]
ZAINAB BINT MUḤAMMAD (زينب بنت محمد). The daughter of Muḥammad by K͟hadījah. She married Abū ʾl-ʿĀṣ. The story of the conversion of Abū ʾl-ʿĀṣ, through the devotion of his wife, is told by Muir (vol. iv. p. 7). She died A.H. 61.
ZĀʾIR (زائر). A pilgrim to Muḥammad’s grave at al-Madīnah, as distinguished from a ḥājī, or pilgrim to Makkah. According to Burton, Zāʾirs are ordered to visit the tomb perfumed and in their best clothes. The person who conducts the zāʾir to the sacred spot, is called a muzawwir, who on the occasion of Captain Burton’s visit recited the following prayer:—
“In the name of Allah and in the Faith of Allah’s Prophet! O Lord, cause me to enter the entering of truth, and cause me to issue forth the issuing of Truth, and permit me to draw near to Thee and make me a King victorious!” (i.e. over the world, the flesh, and the devil). Then follow blessings on the Prophet, and afterwards: “O Allah! open to me the doors of Thy mercy, and grant me entrance into it, and protect me from the stoned devil!” (Burton’s El-Medinah and Meccah, vol. ii. p. 296.)
ZAKARĪYĀʾ (زكرياء). Zacharias. The father of John Baptist; the husband of Hannah’s sister, and the uncle of the Virgin Mary. Mentioned four times in the Qurʾan:—
[Sūrah iii. 32]: “So with goodly acceptance did her Lord accept her, with goodly growth did He make her grow, and Zakarīyāʾ reared her. So oft as Zakarīyāʾ went in to Mary at the sanctuary, he found her supplied with food. ‘Oh Mary!’ said he, ‘whence hast thou this?’ She said, ‘It is from God; verily God supplieth whom He will without reckoning!’ There did Zakarīyāʾ call upon his Lord; ‘O my Lord!’ said he, ‘vouchsafe me from Thyself good descendants; Thou verily art the hearer of prayer.’ Then did the angels call to him, as he stood praying in the sanctuary: ‘God announced John (Yaḥyā) to thee, who shall be a verifier of the Word from God, and a great one, chaste, and a prophet of the number of the just.’ He said, ‘O my Lord! how shall I have a son now that old age has come upon me and my wife is barren?’ He said: ‘Thus will God do his pleasure.’ He said, ‘Lord! give me a token.’ He said, ‘Thy token is, that not for three days shalt thou speak to man but by signs. But remember thy Lord often, and praise Him at even and at morn.’ ”
[Sūrah vi. 85]: “And Zakarīyāʾ, John, Jesus, and Elias: all were just persons.”