ʿAwf, who said: I heard Ibn ʿUmar say, “We lived through a period of our lives when each of us was granted faith before learning the Quran.”

He also related, with his chain of transmission, a report from Ismāʿīl ibn Muhājir, from his father, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: “We were the pioneers of this community. A man might be among the best and most righteous Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, yet have mastered only a single surah of the Quran or thereabouts. The Quran was weighty for them; they were blessed with knowledge of it and with putting it into practice