Abdullah ibn Mas'ud عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ مَسْعُود

Overview

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (Arabic: عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ مَسْعُود; c. 594–653 CE / 30 BH–32 AH), of the Banū Hudhayl, was an early Meccan convert — reported as the sixth Muslim. Small in stature, sweet-voiced in recitation, he was one of the most knowledgeable Companions in the Quran and fiqh. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said of him: "Take the Quran from four: from ʿAbd Allāh (ibn Masʿūd), Sālim (mawlā Abī Ḥudhayfa), Muʿādh (ibn Jabal), and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3760).

Role

Ibn Masʿūd was the personal servant of the Prophet ﷺ — carrying his sandals and his miswāk. He memorised over seventy chapters of the Quran from the Prophet's ﷺ direct teaching. After the Prophet's ﷺ death he settled in Kufa under ʿUmar's appointment, where he became the foundational teacher of the Kufan juristic and Quranic school. The Hanafi school later traces its earliest jurisprudential method substantially to his students.

Famous narration

Ibn Masʿūd reported the Prophet ﷺ said: "Each one of you is gathered in his mother's womb for forty days as a drop, then a clinging clot for the same period, then a chewed lump for the same period; then the angel breathes the rūḥ into him and is commanded to record four things: his provision, his lifespan, his deeds, and whether he will be wretched or fortunate." — Sahih al-Bukhari 3208; Sahih Muslim 2643

Death

Died in Medina in 32 AH (653 CE), aged about 60. Buried at al-Baqīʿ.

See also

• Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
• Umar
• Ibn Abbas
• Sahaba
• Quran

References

1. Sahih al-Bukhari 3208, 3760; Sahih Muslim 2643.
2. al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ, vol. 1 — life of Ibn Masʿūd.
3. Ibn Hajar, al-Iṣābah.