Level of Knowledge & Stature

One can gauge the level of Hazrat Abdullah bin Mas‘ud’s knowledge and stature from the following incident that took place towards the end of Hazrat Mu‘az bin Jabal’s life when people asked him to give them some advice. He replied by saying, “Knowledge and faith both hold separate ranks. Knowledge has a certain rank and so does faith. Whoever strives to attain them both will be successful. He then mentioned the names of four individuals who led by example and Hazrat Abdullah bin Mas‘ud was among those four people.

(Masnad Ahmad bin Hanbal, Vol. 7, p. 375, Hadith no. 22455, Alim-ul-Kutb, Beirut, 1998)