Ibn Isḥāq said, “Ziyād, the freedman of Ibn ʿAyyāsh, related to me: ‘Ibn Masʿūd possessed a beautiful voice in the recitation of the Quran.’

Humayd ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated: Abū Usāmah told us; Misʿar, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, from Zayd ibn Wahb, who said, ‘I saw with my own eyes two dark streaks on ʿAbd Allah’s cheeks, left there by his constant weeping.’ (1)

Al-Aʿmash—through Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, from al-Ḥārith ibn Suwayd—reported: “One day people pressed upon ʿAbd Allah, so he declared, ‘By Allah, besides Whom there is no deity, if you knew what I know you would pour dust upon my head.’” (2) The report is transmitted through several chains.

Al-Ḥākim’s al-Mustadrak records—through al-Thawrī, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, from his father—that ʿAbd Allah said, “If you were aware of my sins, not two men would follow in my footsteps; you would scatter dust over my head. I would dearly love it were Allah to forgive me a single sin of mine, even if people then called me ‘ʿAbd Allah, son of dung.’” (3)

ʿAlqamah related: I sat with Abū al-Dardāʾ, who asked, “Where are you from?” I replied, “From Kūfah.” He said, “Do you not have among you Ibn Umm ʿAbd—the keeper of the Prophet’s two sandals, his cushion, and his ablution vessel? Among you is the bearer of the secret, and among you is the one whom Allah protected from Satan on….”