عبد الله بن سعد
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd
Person
A scribe of revelation who later left Islam and returned, and became governor of Egypt.
What it means
Abdullah ibn Sa’d ibn Abi Sarh served for a time as one of the Prophet’s scribes, then left Medina for Mecca and abandoned Islam. At the conquest of Mecca he was among a few people named for execution, but Uthman, his foster-brother, brought him to the Prophet, who after a delay accepted his allegiance. He became governor of Egypt under Uthman and led campaigns in North Africa.
Often misunderstood as
That he showed Muhammad “adding” to the Quran at will, so the book cannot be divine revelation.
What the sources say
The story is that he claimed credit for the words “so blessed be God, the best of creators” (23:14) and boasted that he could produce revelation like it (6:93). The report is in some commentaries with weak chains, and scholars note a difficulty with the timeline, since both verses are in chapters revealed in Mecca. An author seeking credibility would hardly preserve a scribe who left the faith. The tradition recorded both his departure and his return.