2544 – ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; he said: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ghaylān informed us, saying: Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Khazzāz related to us; he said: Jaʿfar ibn Ḥumayd in Kūfah narrated to us; he said: Yūnus ibn Abī Yaʿfūr, from his father, from Muslim Abū Saʿīd, the client of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, from Ibn Masʿūd:

He passed by two men in the mosque who had disagreed about a verse of the Qurʾān. One of them said, “ʿUmar taught me how to recite it,” while the other said, “Ubayy taught me how to recite it.” Ibn Masʿūd replied, “Recite it exactly as ʿUmar taught you.” Then his eyes overflowed with tears until the pebbles beneath him were wet as he stood, after which he said:

“ʿUmar was an impregnable wall: Muslims would enter within it and none would leave. When ʿUmar died, the wall was breached—people now leave but do not enter. Had even a dog loved ʿUmar, I would love that dog. After the Prophet of God ﷺ, I have not loved anyone the way I love Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrah; my love for these three is unrivaled.”