al-Tufayl ibn al-Harith

Al-Tufayl ibn al-Harith belonged to Banu al-Muttalib ibn Abd Manaf, the Qurayshi clan closely connected with Banu Hashim. His father was al-Harith ibn al-Muttalib, and Ibn Sa'd and Ibn Hibban identify his mother as Sukhayla bint Khuza'i al-Thaqafiyya. His full brothers included Ubayda ibn al-Harith, who was mortally wounded at Badr, and al-Husayn ibn al-Harith, another participant in the battle.

Classical notices place al-Tufayl among the early Muslims and emigrants. The precise date of his conversion and migration is not independently preserved, but his presence in the Medinan community before Badr is secure. Reports of the Prophetic brotherhood differ over the Ansari paired with him, naming either al-Mundhir ibn Muhammad or Sufyan ibn Nasr; this variation concerns the partner's name rather than al-Tufayl's identity.

Musa ibn Uqba and Ibn Ishaq include him among the participants at Badr in 2 AH, corresponding to 624 CE. Ibn Sa'd adds that he attended Uhud and the subsequent campaigns with the Prophet. No substantial body of hadith is preserved under his name; al-Baghawi's biographical entry explicitly notes that he did not transmit a hadith. His secure public profile is therefore principally that of an early emigrant and veteran Companion rather than a prolific narrator.

The received administrative record links him with Zaynab bint Khuzayma, later a wife of the Prophet. Ibn Abd al-Barr states that she was married to al-Tufayl ibn al-Harith ibn al-Muttalib and was then married by his brother Ubayda. Other early transmitted summaries alternatively name al-Husayn, or express uncertainty between al-Husayn and al-Tufayl, and some later accounts preserve additional husband traditions. The existing probable relationship confidence is therefore appropriate and has not been altered.

Ibn Sa'd records a son named Amir ibn al-Tufayl, but the surviving sources do not provide a developed account of the son or a full household history. Al-Tufayl's exact birth date is unknown. The report that he died at about seventy in 32 AH would imply a birth around 38 before the Hijra, approximately 584 CE, but this is only a chronological inference.

The death year varies between 30 and 32 AH, approximately 650–653 CE. Several classical accounts prefer 32 AH and say that his brother al-Husayn died a few months after him, while another strand places both deaths in 30 AH. No early source examined identifies a separately marked grave. The responsible conclusion is that he died during the caliphate of Uthman, probably in Medina, while his precise burial place remains unknown.