the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The likeness of the believer who recites the Qur’an is like that of the utrujjah (citron): its fragrance is pleasant and its taste is pleasant.”
And through this same chain, up to al-Firyābī: Hudbah narrated to us; Hammām narrated to us; Qatādah, from Anas ibn Mālik, from Abū Mūsā, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The likeness of the believer who recites the Qur’an is like that of the utrujjah.” This wording is agreed upon (1).
Those who died in the same year as Ibn al-Muslimah (2) were: the Seljuq Sultan Alp Arslan (3); ʿĀʾishah, daughter of Abū ʿUmar al-Bisṭāmī (4); Abū al-Ghanāʾim ibn al-Maʾmūn (5); Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Qushayrī (6); the foremost poet of his age, Ṣurdirr—Abū Manṣūr ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan (7); the ḥāfiẓ Abū Saʿd al-Sukkari (8); Karīmah al-Marwaziyyah (9); Abū ʿUthmān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Waraqāʾ; Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Muhtadī Billāh (10); and Abū al-Muẓaffar Hannād al-Nasafī.
(1) Reported by al-Bukhari, no. 5020 (Book of the Virtues of the Quran, chapter: “The superiority of the Quran over all other speech”); no. 5059 (chapter: “One who shows off with the Quran, earns from it, or boasts of it”); no. 5427 (Book of Foods); and no. 7560 (Book of Tawhid). Also recorded by Muslim, no. 797 (Book of the Prayer of Travellers, chapter: “The merit of the memoriser of the Quran”), as well as by Abu Dawud, no. 4830; al-Tirmidhi, no. 2865; al-Nasaʾi, 8/124; and Ibn Majah, no. 214.
(2) i.e. Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Baghdadi (d. 465 AH/1072 CE).
(3) His biography will appear under no. 210.
(4) Her biography will appear under no. 215.
(5) His biography will appear under no. 107.
(6) His biography will appear under no. 109.
(7) His biography will appear under no. 143.
(8) His biography will appear under no. 213.
(9) Her biography will appear under no. 110; the author corrects there that her death occurred in 463 AH/1071 CE.
(10) His biography will appear under no. 117.