He was asked, and he chose

Zayd's family had not stopped looking for him. Pilgrims from Makkah eventually carried word home, and his father and his uncle came with money to buy him back.

They put the offer to the Prophet ﷺ. His answer was to widen it: call him, and give him the choice; if he chooses you, take him without any payment.

That is a striking thing to say. He was under no obligation to offer it and every material interest ran the other way.

Zayd was called. He recognised them immediately — this is his father and his uncle, and he says so.

And then he said he would not choose them.

His father was appalled, and asked whether he was choosing slavery over his own family and his own freedom. Zayd's answer was that he had seen something from this man that meant he would not prefer anyone to him.

The Prophet ﷺ then took him out to the gathering at the Ka'bah and declared publicly that Zayd was his son, inheriting from him and he from Zayd. His father and uncle went home satisfied.

It is worth being careful about the shape of this. It is not a story about a slave who loved his master, which is the sentimental version and the wrong one. It is about a boy who was given a genuinely free choice — with his freedom and his family on one side of it — and who chose on the evidence of what he had actually seen.

The form of adoption that followed was later ended, and he was called by his father's name again. The record of the choice remains.