Fath al-Rabbani

Sayyiduna Amr bin Salamah (may Allah be pleased with him) says: We resided in a place where people returning from the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would pass by. I would go near them and listen to them, until I had memorized a considerable portion of the Qur’an. Meanwhile, people were waiting for the conquest of Makkah to embrace Islam. When Makkah was conquered, people began to come to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). A man would come and say: I am the representative of such-and-such tribe and have come to inform about their acceptance of Islam. My father also went to inform about his tribe’s acceptance of Islam. When he returned to them, he said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The one among you who has recited more of the Qur’an should be put forward for leading the prayer. So they looked (to see who should be made the imam), and although there were many people, they could not find anyone who had recited more Qur’an than me, so they put me forward for imamat, and I was still a boy. I led them in prayer, and I had only one sheet; when I would bow or prostrate, the cloth would rise up and my private parts would begin to be exposed. When we finished the prayer, a very elderly woman said: At least cover your reciter’s backside from us. Then they cut a piece of cloth and made a shirt for me, because of which I was very happy.