my fingernails. I then gave what remained to Umar ibn al-Khattāb.”

They asked, “How did you interpret that, Messenger of Allah?”

He replied, “Knowledge.”(1)

It is also reported from him in the two Sahih collections that he said:

“I saw myself drawing water from a well with a bucket. Ibn Abī Quhāfa took it and drew one or two bucketfuls. His drawing was somewhat weak—may Allah forgive him. Umar ibn al-Khattāb then took it, and in his hand it became a great bucket. I had never seen any man of extraordinary strength draw water as powerfully as he did, until the people had drunk their fill and settled at the watering place.”(2)

Abdullah ibn Ahmad said: Al-Hasan ibn Hammād narrated to us: Wakī narrated to us, from al-Amash, from Shaqīq, from Abdullah ibn Masūd, who said:

“If Umar’s knowledge were placed in one pan of a scale and the knowledge of [the best](3) people on earth were placed in the other, his knowledge would outweigh theirs.”

Al-Amash said, “I questioned this and mentioned it to Ibrāhīm. He replied, ‘Why did you question it? He made a statement even greater than that. He said: “I believe that nine-tenths of knowledge departed with Umar ibn al-Khattāb.”’”(4)

Ibn Batta related through an established chain of transmission from Ibn Uyayna and Hammād ibn Salama—and this is his wording—from Abdullah ibn Umayr, from Zayd ibn Wahb: Maqil ibn Muqarrin [Abū Umayra](5) had taught one man a verse, while Umar ibn al-Khattāb had taught it to another. The two asked Ibn Masūd about it. He said to one of them, “Who taught it to you?”

He replied, “Abū Umayra ibn Maqil ibn Muqarrin.”