Nuʿaym, in al-Ḥilyah (1 / 229), narrated through Masrūq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The Messenger of Allah said this. Al-Tirmidhī said: “A good, authentic hadith.”

It is also recorded by al-Bukhārī (2 / 445), Muslim, and Aḥmad (2 / 189 and 195) through this route, with the wording: “Learn the recitation of the Quran from four...” It has another route, recorded by al-Ḥākim (3 / 526–527), who declared it authentic, through Mujāhid, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, with the same wording. It also has a corroborating report recorded by al-Ḥākim (3 / 225) from the hadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, and another recorded by Ibn ʿAdī (99 / 2) from the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar.

1828 — “Modesty is part of faith, and the most modest of my Ummah is ʿUthmān.”

Ibn ʿAsākir (11 / 97 / 1) narrated it from Abū ʿAbd al-Malik Marwān ibn Muḥammad ibn Khālid al-ʿUthmānī, who said: “My grandfather informed us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād, from his father, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah,” attributed to the Prophet.

I say: I have not found any biographical entry for this Abū ʿAbd al-Malik. As for his grandfather, he was—Allah knows best—ʿUthmān ibn Khālid ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān al-Umawī al-Madanī. He narrated from Ibn Abī al-Zinād and others, and his son Muḥammad, Abū Marwān al-ʿUthmānī, narrated from him. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “Abandoned in hadith.” He was one of Ibn Mājah’s teachers, and Ibn Mājah narrated from him, through this very chain of transmission, two hadiths concerning the virtues of ʿUthmān. One of them is documented in al-Ḍaʿīfah (2291).