Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud
companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (c.594-c.653)

Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud (Arabic: عبد الله بن مسعود, romanized: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd; c. 594 – c. 653) was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad whom Sunni Islamic tradition regards as the greatest interpreter of the Quran of his time and the second ever. He was also known by the kunya Abu Abd al-Rahman.
Early years
Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud was born in Mecca in about 594, a son of Mas'ud ibn Ghafil and Umm Abd bint Abd Wadd, both of whom were from the Hudhayl tribe,
Abd Allah had a brother, Utba, and at least one wife in Muhammad's lifetime. A craftswoman who supported Abd Allah and their child through her hand-crafts. She was Zaynab bint Abd Allah from the Thaqif tribe with whom he had several daughters. Some people called her also Rayta bint Abd Allah. Based on authentic hadiths, both Rayta and Zaynab was the same woman, referto Abd Allah's age and his age of marriage due to his difficult economy. He specified in his will that none of his daughters should be married off without their own knowledge. He also had a son named Abd al-Rahman.
He is described as a thin, short man with very dark skin, and smooth hair reaching his shoulders.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q423557. VIAF identifies the subject as 35254789. The Library of Congress control number is n88174145. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.