The Shepherd
Ibn Masʿūd was a boy tending sheep for ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ when the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr passed him, thirsty, and asked for milk. He said the sheep were not his to give from. The Prophet ﷺ asked for a young ewe that had never been mated, touched its udder, and it gave milk. The boy asked to be taught, and became one of the first handful of Muslims — he counted himself the sixth.1
He was small, thin, and short — the reports mention his legs being so slight that when the wind blew his garment the Companions laughed, and the Prophet ﷺ said that on the scale they would be heavier than Uḥud.2 He was admitted into the household to the point that he was called ṣāḥib al-sirr, the keeper of the secret, and Abū Mūsā said that when they came to Madīnah they thought he and his mother were members of the Prophet's ﷺ family, from how often he went in.3
The First Public Recitation
The Companions were saying that Quraysh had never heard the Qur'an recited aloud, and asked who would do it. Ibn Masʿūd volunteered. They objected that he had no clan to protect him from what would follow; he said God would protect him.4
He went to the Station of Ibrāhīm in the morning while Quraysh sat around the Kaʿbah, and began: “In the name of God, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. The Most Merciful. Taught the Qur'an.” They asked what the son of Umm ʿAbd was saying, realised he was reciting what Muḥammad ﷺ had brought, and beat him in the face. He kept reciting as far as he was able.4
He came back to his companions with his face marked. They said this was exactly what they had feared. He answered: “The enemies of God were never more contemptible to me than they are now. If you wish, I will go to them with the same tomorrow.” They told him he had done enough — “you have made them hear what they hate.”4
The Teacher
The Prophet ﷺ named him among four men to learn the Qur'an from, listing him first.5 He said, “Whoever wishes to recite the Qur'an as fresh as when it was revealed, let him recite it in the manner of Ibn Umm ʿAbd.”6 He once asked Ibn Masʿūd to recite to him; Ibn Masʿūd said, “Shall I recite it to you when it was revealed to you?” and was told, “I love to hear it from someone other than myself.” He recited from Sūrat al-Nisāʾ until he reached “So how [will it be] when We bring from every nation a witness and We bring you against these as a witness?” — and looked up to find the Prophet's ﷺ eyes overflowing.7
ʿUmar sent him to Kūfah as teacher and judge, and the school of Qur'anic reading and jurisprudence that grew there — and through it, in time, much of the Ḥanafī tradition — traces to him. His students included ʿAlqamah, al-Aswad, and Masrūq, and through them Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī and Abū Ḥanīfah's teachers.8
He resisted surrendering his personal copy of the Qur'an during ʿUthmān's standardisation, and the sources record the disagreement openly rather than smoothing it over. He died in Madīnah at about sixty and was buried in al-Baqīʿ.8