Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 278
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 278 the accurate phrasing of agreements, covenants and treaties. He therefore directed his young secretary, Zaid bin Thabet Ansari, who had acquired literacy in Arabic under the tuition of the prisoners taken in the battle of Badr, to learn Hebrew also. Zaid p ossessed a very keen intelligence and, with diligent efforts, he acquired literacy in Hebrew within a fortnight. Later, in the time of Abu Bakr, under his instructions, Zaid bin Thabet compiled the Holy Quran in the form of a book. By virtue of the covenant, which had been drawn up between the different sections of the people of Medina shortly after the arrival of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, he had, in effect, become the chief executive and judicial authority in Medina. He dec ided such cases as were submitted to him according to the law or the custom that regulated the affairs of each section of the population. For instance, it is related that towards the end of the fourth year of the Hijra, a case was submitted to him in which a Jewish woman and a Jewish man were charged with adultery. When the Holy Prophet determined that the charge had been duly established, he inquired from the Jewish divines what was the penalty for the offence under Mosaic law. They submitted to him, false ly, hoping to mislead him and hold him up to ridicule, that the penalty for adultery under Mosaic law was that the faces of the persons guilty of the offence should be blackened and they should be taken through the streets of the town riding a mount facing backwards. It so happened that at that time Abdullah bin Salam, a Jewish divine who had embraced Islam, was present, and he submitted that the Holy Prophet was being falsely advised and that the penalty for adultery, according to the Torah, was stoning