of Muslim soldiers, and I am not about to prefer my own life to theirs.

When ʿUmar read the letter he wept. Someone asked him, “Has Abū ʿUbaydah died?” He replied, “No—though it is as though he has.” (1)

In the end Abū ʿUbaydah passed away and the plague receded.

Abū al-Muwajjih Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Marwazī said: They relate that Abū ʿUbaydah was among 36,000 troops, and only 6,000 men survived.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām informed us, from Abū Rūḥ; Abū Saʿd told us; Ibn Ḥamdān (2) told us; Abū Yaʿlā narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Asmāʾ narrated to us; Mahdī ibn Maymūn narrated to us; Wāṣil, the client of Abū ʿUyaynah (3), narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Sayf al-Makhzūmī (4), from al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān— a Syrian jurist— from ʿIyāḍ ibn Ghuṭayf, who said:

I entered upon Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ during the illness that led to his death. His wife Tuḥayfa was sitting at his head while he had turned his face toward the wall. I asked, “How did Abū ʿUbaydah pass the night?” She answered, “He passed it with reward.” He said, “By Allah, I did not pass it with reward!” The people seemed distressed, so he said, “Will you not ask me why I said that?” They replied, “We disliked what you said; how, then, should we ask you about it?” He said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Whoever spends surplus wealth in the path of Allah will receive seven-hundredfold, and whoever spends on his family, or visits a sick person, or removes something harmful, each good deed will be rewarded tenfold; and fasting…’