al-Khattāb wrote to the people of Kūfah:

“I have sent ʿAmmār to you as governor and Ibn Masʿūd as teacher and minister. Both of them are among the elite of the Companions of Muḥammad ﷺ who fought at Badr. Listen to them and follow their example, for I have preferred you with ʿAbd Allāh over myself. (1)

Al-Aʿmash related—from Khaythamah—who said:
“I was sitting with ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr when he mentioned Ibn Masʿūd and said, ‘I shall never cease loving him after I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “Learn the Qur’an from four: from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd”—and he began with him—“Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, and Sālim, the freedman of Abū Ḥudhayfah.”’ (2)”

It was recorded by al-Nasāʾī.

The report was also transmitted by Shuʿbah, Wakīʿ, Sufyān, Abū Muʿāwiyah, and Yaʿlā, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Wāʾil, from Masrūq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr; thus al-Aʿmash appears to have preserved the narration with both chains.

Shuʿbah likewise narrated it from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Ibrāhīm, from Masrūq; and Zayd ibn Abī Unaysah related it from Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif, from Masrūq.

Ibn ʿAllān and others informed us in writing that Ḥanbal ibn ʿAbd Allāh told them, saying: Ibn al-Ḥuṣayn narrated to us, Ibn al-Mudhhib narrated to us, al-Qaṭīʿī narrated to us, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad narrated to us, my father narrated to me, al-Aswad ibn ʿĀmir narrated to us, Isrāʾīl informed us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Khumayr ibn Mālik, who said:

“When the copies of the Qur’an were ordered to be replaced, Ibn Masʿūd said, ‘Whoever among you can keep his own codex hidden, let him hide it, for whoever misappropriates anything will be made to bring it forth on the Day of Resurrection.’ He then added, ‘I have recited seventy sūrahs directly from the mouth of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—shall I then abandon what I received from the mouth of the Messenger…’”