Ibn Wahb reported: Ḥaywah informed me, ʿUqayl informed us, from Ibn Shihab, who said, “Someone I do not suspect related to me, from Anas, who said:

‘While we were sitting in the company of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said, “A man from the people of Paradise will now appear before you.”’

Thereupon Saʿd came into view (1)(2).

Al-Thawri transmits—from al-Miqdam ibn Shurayh, from his father, from Saʿd—the words of the Almighty: ‘Do not repel those who call upon their Lord’ [al-Anʿam 52]. He said, ‘It was revealed concerning six individuals; Ibn Masʿud and I were among them.’ (3)

Maslamah ibn ʿAlqamah narrated: Dawud ibn Abi Hind told us, from Abu ʿUthman, that Saʿd said:

‘This verse was revealed about me: “But if they strive to make you associate with Me something about which you have no knowledge, then do not obey them” [al-ʿAnkabut 8].

I used always to treat my mother with exemplary kindness, but when I embraced Islam she said, “O Saʿd, what is this new religion you have taken up? Either you abandon this faith of yours, or I will neither eat nor drink until I die, and you will be blamed, with people saying, ‘Here is the man who killed his mother.’”

I replied, “Mother, do not do that. I will never abandon this religion of mine for anything.”

She then went a whole day and night without eating or drinking, and by morning she was worn out.

When I saw her in that state I said, “Mother, you know—by Allah—were you to have a hundred souls, and they departed one after the other, I would still not leave my religion. So eat if you wish, or refrain from eating.”’