more deserving of it than he is—and I shall tell you why:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would often remain late into the night with Abu Bakr, conferring about matters that concerned the Muslims. One evening he stayed with him in that way while I was present. When he finally rose, we rose with him, and we passed by a man standing in the mosque performing prayer.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stopped to listen to his recitation. Just as we were about to recognise him, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever would like to recite the Qur’an fresh, just as it was revealed, let him recite according to the reading of Ibn Umm ʿAbd.”

The man then sat and began to supplicate, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ kept saying to him, “Ask, and you will be granted.”

I said to myself, “By Allah, I will go to him at daybreak and give him the glad tidings.” So I went early, only to find that Abu Bakr had reached him before me.

This was narrated by Ahmad in his Musnad (1) through the chain of Abū Muʿāwiyah.

A similar report was transmitted by Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Umawī, from Mālik ibn Mighwal, from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Khaythamah … and he mentioned the whole story.

Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Kathīr relates—from Ismāʿīl ibn Sakhr al-Aylī, from Abū ʿUbaydah ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmmār, from his father, from his grandfather—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed by Ibn Masʿūd while he was reciting the Qur’an letter by letter and said, “Whoever wishes to hear the Qur’an fresh, just as it was sent down, let him listen to it from Ibn Masʿūd.” (2)

Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal likewise recorded in the Musnad: Wakiʿ narrated to us—from ʿĪsā ibn Dīnār, from his father, from ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith al-Muṣṭaliqī—a report conveying the same meaning. (3)

And he also narrated: