The Prophet ﷺ met Zayd bin Amr bin Nufayl in the lower part of Baldah, before revelation had descended upon the Prophet ﷺ. A meal was brought before the Prophet ﷺ, but Zayd refused to eat from it, saying, "I do not eat from what you slaughter at your idols, nor do I eat anything except what the name of Allah has been mentioned over."Zayd bin Amr used to criticize the Quraysh for their slaughtering practices, saying, "The sheep was created by Allah, who sent down water for it from the sky and caused vegetation to grow for it from the earth, yet you slaughter it in a name other than Allah's." He said this in rejection of their practice and out of reverence for the matter.
أن النبي ﷺ لقي زيد بن عمرو بن نفيل بأسفل بلدح قبل أن ينزل على النبي ﷺ الوحي، فقدمت إلى النبي ﷺ سفرة، فأبى أن يأكل منها، ثم قال زيد: إني لست آكل مما تذبحون على أنصابكم، ولا أكل إلا ما ذكر اسم الله عليه، وأن زيد بن عمرو كان يعيب على قريش ذبائحهم، ويقول: الشاة خلقها الله، وأنزل لها من السماء الماء، وأنبت لها من الأرض، ثم تذبحونها على غير اسم الله، إنكارا لذلك وإعظاما له.
Bukhari narrated it in the Merits of the Ansar (3826), from Muhammad bin Abu Bakr, who said, Fudayl bin Sulayman told us, Musa told us, Salim bin Abdullah told us, from Abdullah bin Umar, and he related it. In another wording, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was brought a tray containing meat, but he refused to eat from it, then said, 'I do not eat what you slaughter upon your altars.'" Bukhari narrated it in Slaughtered Animals and Game (5499) through another route, from Musa bin Uqba, who said, Salim informed me that he heard Abdullah narrating, and he related it.It appears from this narration that the tray belonged to the Prophet ﷺ, and that Zayd objected to him, but this is not the case. Rather, the tray belonged to Quraysh, who presented it to the Prophet ﷺ, and he refused to eat from it. The Prophet ﷺ then offered it to Zayd bin Amr bin Nufayl, who also refused to eat from it, and said, addressing Quraysh who had first presented it, "We do not eat..." and so on. So it appears that the narrator handled the account of this story differently from the narrator who presented it in the first narration in the required manner, free of confusion or ambiguity.As for what Khattabi mentioned, that the Prophet ﷺ would not eat what they slaughtered upon their altars for their idols, but would eat other than that even if they did not mention the name of Allah over it, because the sacred law had not yet been revealed, and indeed the law prohibiting the eating of what has not had the name of Allah mentioned over it was not revealed until a long time after the mission began, this is something that the nature of prophethood rejects. For how could it be reasonable that someone beneath him, Zayd bin Amr bin Nufayl, would refrain from eating it, saying, "I do not eat except what has had the name of Allah mentioned over it," while the Prophet ﷺ would find it permissible, when the two of them were in the same gathering and at the same table? Rather, it would be more fitting and more appropriate for the Prophet ﷺ to distance himself from it before anyone else.His saying, "at the lower part of Baldah," refers to a valley in the west of Makkah. It is a long, wide valley that begins at the end of the Shuhada neighborhood and ends at Hudaybiya (Shumaysi).