, and he stayed with him in his own town, sharing a little over twenty years of Abū al-ʿĀliyah’s life.

Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī said, “Abū al-ʿĀliyah received the Qurʾānic reading by formal presentation (1) from Ubayy, Zayd, and Ibn ʿAbbās; it is also said that he read to ʿUmar.”

Those who in turn took the reading from him by presentation include Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb and others.

Qatādah reported that Abū al-ʿĀliyah said, “I completed the Qurʾān ten years after the death of your Prophet ﷺ.” (2)

Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān and others narrated from Hishām ibn Ḥassān, from Ḥafṣah bint Sirīn, who said: Abū al-ʿĀliyah told me, “I recited the Qurʾān to ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, three times.” (3)

Abū Khaldah related from Abū al-ʿĀliyah that he said, “Ibn ʿAbbās used to seat me upon the couch while the Quraysh sat below it, and they began signalling to one another about me. Ibn ʿAbbās then remarked, ‘Such is knowledge: it adds honour to the noble and seats a slave upon couches.’ ” (4)

I say: This was the couch in the governor’s residence when Ibn ʿAbbās was administering it on behalf of ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him.

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd declared, “After the Companions, no one is more knowledgeable of the Qurʾān than Abū al-ʿĀliyah; after him comes Saʿīd ibn Jubayr.”

The two ḥadith masters, Abū Zurʿah and Abū Ḥātim, likewise deemed Abū al-ʿĀliyah reliable.