mentioned him, he would say: “That young man among the elders—he has a tongue that never ceases to ask and a heart that truly understands.”(1)

Isrāʾīl relates: Simāk informed us, from ʿIkrima, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
“I know the whole Qur’an except for three words: ar-Raqīm, ghislīn, and ḥanān.”(2)

Yaḥyā ibn Yamān reports, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, who said:
“ʿUmar said to Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘You have indeed acquired knowledge that we have not attained.’”(3)

ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb narrates, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
“ʿUmar invited me along with the senior Companions and would say to me, ‘Do not speak until they have spoken.’ Then he would question me; thereafter he would turn to them and say, ‘What has kept you from bringing me what this youth—whose hair has not yet fully grown—brings me?’”(4)

Maʿmar relates, from az-Zuhrī, who said:
“The Emigrants said to ʿUmar, ‘Will you not invite our sons as you invite Ibn ʿAbbās?’ He replied, ‘That one is the youth among the elders; he possesses a tongue that asks and a heart that understands.’”(5)