When he finished reading the letter he was shaken. He ordered the reciter to read aloud the verse, “Do those who plot evil deeds feel secure…?” (Qur’an 16:45) together with the following passages and others of the same tenor. He intensified his admonition, filling it with fear and warning. The words affected him deeply; his colour changed and a severe stomach-ache overtook him. He was helped down from the pulpit, crying out in pain, and was carried to the public bath. There he remained, rolling from back to belly, until shortly before sunset. He lingered a week, every treatment proving useless. He made his final bequests, bade farewell to his children, and died. His funeral prayer was held after the Friday ʿAsr prayer, on the fourth of Muharram; it was led by his son Abu Bakr and then by his brother Abu Yaʿla.

ʿAbd al-Ghafir devoted many pages to describing him and wrote at length until he said:

“I found in a letter of condolence sent from Ṭūs by Zayn al-Islam to Shaykh al-Islam:
‘Was there anyone in his lifetime who dared to fabricate a lie against the Messenger of Allah? Was not the Sunnah, through his very presence, triumphant, and innovation, out of sheer awe for him, subdued? Was he not a caller to Allah, a guide for Allah’s servants— a youth with no lapse, a mature man with no stumble, an elder with no slip? O people of the ink-pots, fold up your satchels, for the one around whom your learning revolved has been laid to rest. And O guardians of the pulpits, may Allah magnify your reward, for your master and imam has departed.’”

Al-Kattani said, “I never saw a shaykh who combined asceticism and knowledge the way Abu ʿUthman did. He had memorised something from every discipline—nothing eluded him. He knew Quranic exegesis from numerous works by heart and was one of the preservers of hadith.”

I say: He was indeed among the leading authorities of tradition; he authored a work on the Sunnah and the creed of the early generations that no fair-minded reader has seen without acknowledging his merit (1).

Maʿmar ibn al-Fakhir said, “I heard ʿAbd al-Rashid ibn Nasir, the preacher in Mecca,…"