protested, "Should I recite it to you when you are the one to whom it was sent down and revealed?" Muhammad replied, "I love to hear it from someone else." Abdullah then recited it until Muhammad wept. Military career Abdullah fought at the Battle of Badr. After the battle, Muhammad ordered the warriors to search among the corpses for his enemy Abu Jahl, who could be recognised by a distinctive scar on his knee. Abdullah found Abu Jahl "at his last gasp" with his leg cut off. He seized his beard and asked, "Are you Abu Jahl?" Abu Jahl replied, "Can there be a man superior to the one you have killed or one whom his own folk has killed?" Abdullah then placed his foot on Abu Jahl's neck, and asked, "Allah's enemy, has Allah put you to shame?" Abu Jahl replied, "How has he shamed me? Am I anything more than a man whom you have killed? Tell me how the battle went." Abdullah told him that the Muslims had won. Abu Jahl responded, "You have climbed high, you little shepherd!" Then Abdullah struck off his head. He brought it to Muhammad, proclaiming, "This is the head of Allah's enemy Abu Jahl!". Abdullah also fought at the Battle of Uhud, the Battle of the Trench and "all the battles," including Tabuk. Twenty years later, he said he wished he had died at Tabuk. Caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar After the death of Muhammad, Abdullah ibn Masud became the eighth-most prominent transmitter of hadith with a total of 848 narrations. Umar called him "a box full of knowledge". The following traditions are among those attributed to him. I asked Allah's Messenger which deed was the best. He replied: "Prayer at its appointed hour." I said: "Then what?" He replied: "Kindness to the parents." I said: "Then what?" He replied: "Jihad in the cause of Allah." And I would not have ceased asking more questions but out of regard. A man said: "Allah's Messenger, which offense is the most grievous in Allah's eye?" He replied: "That you associate a partner with Allah, who created you." He said: "What next?" He replied: "That you kill your child out of fear that he would join you in food." He said: "What next?" He replied: "That you commit adultery with your neighbor's wife." And the Almighty and Exalted Lord testified it: All those