If need be...

If need be, I will go again and recite the Glorious Qur’an in their midst tomorrow morning.” The Muslims said, “It is not necessary anymore. The important thing was to make them hear the holy word, even if just once.” Ibn Mas‘ūd is one of the greatest Muslim memorizers, reciters and commentators of the Noble Qur’an. Very few scholars of his calibre can be found in the history of Islam.

He is one of those people regarding whom the following verses of the Glorious Qur’an were revealed, “As for those who responded to the call of Allah and the Apostle after the wound had befallen them, those among them who do good to others and guard against evil shall have a great reward.” [^1] “And do not drive away those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, they desire only His favor; neither are you answerable for any reckoning of theirs, nor are they answerable for any reckoning of yours, so do not drive them away and thus be one of the unjust.” [^2] We will conclude this story by quoting Ibn Mas‘ūd himself, “The basis and proof of good actions is visible at the end of the road and the noblest end is annihilation in the way of Allah.”[^3] [^1]: Sūrat Āl ‘Imrān 3:172.

[^2]: Sūrat al-An‘ām 6:52. [^3]: Al-Ghadīr, vol. 13, p. 11; Al-Isābah, vol. 3, p. 992; Usd al-Ghābah, vol. 3, p. 259; Ibn Abī al-Hadīd, Sharh Nahj al-Balāghah, vol. 13, p. 225; Qāmūs al-Rijāl, vol. 6, p. 136; Hayāt al-Sahābah, vol. 3, p. 136; Ibn Hishām, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, vol. 2, p. vol. 1, p. 337; Ibn Athīr, Al-Kāmil, vol. 2, p. 319. Previous…