Jami' at-Tirmidhi
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2715
حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بْنُ حُجْرٍ، أَخْبَرَنَا عَبْدُ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنُ أَبِي الزِّنَادِ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، عَنْ خَارِجَةَ بْنِ زَيْدِ بْنِ ثَابِتٍ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، زَيْدِ بْنِ ثَابِتٍ قَالَ أَمَرَنِي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم أَنْ أَتَعَلَّمَ لَهُ كَلِمَاتِ كِتَابِ يَهُودَ . قَالَ " إِنِّي وَاللَّهِ مَا آمَنُ يَهُودَ عَلَى كِتَابٍ " . قَالَ فَمَا مَرَّ بِي نِصْفُ شَهْرٍ حَتَّى تَعَلَّمْتُهُ لَهُ قَالَ فَلَمَّا تَعَلَّمْتُهُ كَانَ إِذَا كَتَبَ إِلَى يَهُودَ كَتَبْتُ إِلَيْهِمْ وَإِذَا كَتَبُوا إِلَيْهِ قَرَأْتُ لَهُ كِتَابَهُمْ . قَالَ أَبُو عِيسَى هَذَا حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ صَحِيحٌ . وَقَدْ رُوِيَ مِنْ غَيْرِ هَذَا الْوَجْهِ عَنْ زَيْدِ بْنِ ثَابِتٍ رَوَاهُ الأَعْمَشُ عَنْ ثَابِتِ بْنِ عُبَيْدٍ الأَنْصَارِيِّ عَنْ زَيْدِ بْنِ ثَابِتٍ قَالَ أَمَرَنِي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم أَنْ أَتَعَلَّمَ السُّرْيَانِيَّةَ .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Zayd ibn Thabit reported: Allah’s Messenger instructed me to learn the writing used by the Jews for him. He said, ‘By Allah, I do not trust the Jews with my letters.’ It took me no more than half a month to learn it for him. After I had learned it, when he wrote to the Jews I wrote to them for him, and when they wrote to him I read their letters to him.
Abu ‘Isa said: This is a hasan sahih hadith. It has also been transmitted through another route from Zayd ibn Thabit: al-A‘mash, from Thabit ibn ‘Ubayd al-Ansari, from Zayd, who said that Allah’s Messenger instructed him to learn Syriac.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic specifies that Zayd learned the Jews’ written language/script and that he handled letters in both directions. A separate route identifies the language as Syriac.