The Shepherd at the Foot of Mount Hira
Before Islam, the young Abdullah ibn Masud was a shepherd tending the flocks of ‘Uqba ibn Abi Mu’ayt. One day the Prophet and Abu Bakr passed and asked if he had any milk. He said the sheep belonged to his master and he could not give what was not his. The Prophet was pleased by his honesty, asked him to bring a barren she-goat, prayed, and milk flowed.
This encounter drew Ibn Masud to the Prophet, and he soon became Muslim — entering the Prophet’s household as a helper, carrying his sandals, preparing his bath, and waking him when he slept. He was inseparable from the Prophet’s daily life and thus received continuous, intimate teaching.
The First Public Recitation
At a time when Muslims were not yet allowed to recite the Quran openly in Mecca, Ibn Masud went alone to the Ka’ba, stood among the Quraysh, and recited from Surah al-Rahman at full voice. The Quraysh beat him so badly that his face was bloodied. He returned and they beat him again the next day. He said: “The enemies of Allah were never more worthless in my eyes than they were today.”
Kufa and the Hanafi School
Umar ibn al-Khattab sent Ibn Masud to Kufa as a teacher, and he remained there for years, building a school of students. His legal method — combining strict hadith transmission with careful rational derivation — became the foundation on which Abu Hanifa built the Hanafi school centuries later.
See also: Quran Sciences, Ilm Al Hadith, Seerah Muadh Ibn Jabal, Seerah Abu Darda, Seerah Umar Ibn Khattab, Al Alaq Surah