and other scholars of Kūfa—such as Alqama, al-Aswad, al-Hārith al-Taymī (1), and Zirr ibn Hubaysh, to whom Āsim ibn Abī al-Najūd recited the Quran—had learned the Quran from Ibn Masūd. They would travel to Medina and learn from Umar and Aisha, and they did not learn from Alī as they did from Umar and Aisha.

Shurayh, who served as his judge, had acquired his knowledge of jurisprudence under Muādh ibn Jabal in Yemen. He would debate Alī on jurisprudential matters and did not follow him unquestioningly. Likewise, Ubayda al-Salmānī did not follow him unquestioningly. Rather, he would say to him:

“Your opinion, together with Umar’s, at a time of unity is dearer to us than your opinion alone at a time of division.”

As for the people of Medina and Mecca, their learning likewise was not derived from him, nor was that of the people of Syria and Basra. These five major centers—the two centers of the Hijaz, the two of Iraq, and Syria—were the places from which the prophetic sciences spread: those pertaining to faith, the Quran, and the Sacred Law.

None of these people derived their learning from him (2), for Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—had sent to every center someone to teach its inhabitants the Quran and the Sunnah. He sent Muādh ibn Jabal, Ubāda ibn al-Sāmit, and others to the people of Syria, and he sent Ibn Masūd, Hudhayfa ibn al-Yamān, and others to Iraq.

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The Rāfidī (3) said: “As for grammar, he was its founder. He said to Abū