3 of 3 · c. 20–30 AH · the caliphate of 'Umar and 'Uthman · Kufa, Iraq
'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه
The Teacher of Kufa
'Umar sent 'Abdullah to Kufa as a teacher and treasurer, writing to its people that he was preferring them over himself by sending a man he valued so much. There he taught the Qur'an and fiqh to thousands.
The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said that whoever wishes to recite the Qur'an fresh, as it was revealed, should recite as the son of Umm 'Abd (that is, Ibn Mas'ud) recites. In another report, when people laughed at his thin legs as he climbed a tree, the Prophet ﷺ said they would weigh more on the Scale than Mount Uhud.
His students, such as 'Alqamah, al-Aswad and Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, carried his approach to the law, and the Kufan school of fiqh later grew from their work.
Real weight before Allah is not in appearance or status but in sincerity and knowledge.
What do you value in people that Allah may value differently?
- Sunan Ibn Majah 138Graded by Al-Albani: Sahih · Muhammad Fouad Abd al-Baqi: Sahih · Shuaib Al Arnaut: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: HasanSahih
- Musnad Ahmad (the hadith on the thinness of Ibn Mas'ud's legs)Grade not recorded here
- Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-KubraHistorical report
- al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'Historical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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