When the Prophet ﷺ asked Ubayy, “Which verse in the Qur’an is the greatest?”, Ubayy replied, “Allah—there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining” [al-Baqarah ⦗1⦘: 255]. The Prophet ﷺ tapped him on the chest and said, “May this knowledge gladden you, Abū Mundhir.”
Anas ibn Mālik said, “During the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ four men gathered the Qur’an, all of them from the Anṣār: Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, Zayd ibn Thābit, and Abū Zayd—one of my uncles.” ⦗2⦘
Ibn ʿAbbās reported that Ubayy said to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, “I received the Qur’an from the one who received it from Gabriel while it was still fresh.” ⦗3⦘
Ibn ʿAbbās also related that ʿUmar said, “The most capable of us in judgment is ʿAlī, and the most proficient in recitation is Ubayy, yet we do leave aside some of Ubayy’s recitation.” Ubayy, however, used to say, “I will not abandon anything I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for Allah—Exalted is He—has said: ‘Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring forth one better than it or its like’ (al-Baqarah 2:106).” ⦗4⦘
(1) Reported by Ahmad, 5/142; Muslim, no. 810, “The Prayer of Travellers,” chapter: “The merit of Surat al-Kahf and Ayat al-Kursi”; Abu Dawud, no. 1460, “Witr,” chapter: “What has been related concerning Ayat al-Kursi.” Al-Tirmidhi alludes to the hadith of Ubayy b. Kaʿb at the end of the chapter on the virtues of Ayat al-Kursi in his “Book of the Merits of the Quran.” It is also narrated by al-Hakim, 3/304, who declared it sound, a judgment endorsed by al-Dhahabi. Al-Suyuti adds that it is cited as well by Ibn al-Durrays and al-Hirawi in Al-Durr al-manthur. – Its purport is: “May knowledge be sweet for you.”
(2) Reported by al-Bukhari, no. 5003, “Merits of the Quran,” chapter: “The Qurraʾ among the Companions”; Muslim, no. 2465, “Merits of the Companions,” chapter: “The virtues of Ubayy”; and al-Tirmidhi, no. 3796, “Chapters on Merits,” subsection: “The merits of Muʿadh, Zayd and Ubayy.”
(3) Reported by Ahmad, 5/117.
(4) Reported by Ahmad, 5/113; al-Bukhari, no. 4481, “Tafsir,” chapter on the verse: “Whatever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten (ma nansakh min ayatin aw nansaha…)” (Q 2:106), and no. 5005, “Merits of the Quran,” chapter: “The Qurraʾ among the Companions”; al-Hakim, 3/305; and al-Fasawi, 2/481, in Maʿrifat wa-l-tarikh.
The word nansaha (“We cause it to be forgotten”) derives from nisyān (forgetfulness) and is the reading of the five other canonical reciters besides Ibn Kathir and Abu ʿAmr. Al-Bukhari transmits the variant nansaʾ-hā (“or We defer it”), meaning “We postpone it,” which is the reading of Ibn Kathir and Abu ʿAmr.