Hunayn.

Then the Prophet ﷺ grew fond of this Abū Sufyān, testified that he would be in Paradise, and said, “I hope he will be a substitute for Ḥamzah (1).”

It is reported that Abū Sufyān performed the pilgrimage. While the barber was shaving his head, he severed a wart on his scalp; the wound became infected, and Abū Sufyān died after reaching Madinah. ʿUmar led the funeral prayer over him.

Another account states that he died four months after his brother Nufal ibn al-Ḥārith (2).

Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī said: When Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was on his death-bed he declared, “Do not weep for me, for I have not knowingly soiled myself (3) with a sin since I embraced Islam (4).”

Ibn Isḥāq said: Abū Sufyān composed the following elegy for the Prophet ﷺ:

I lay awake, and so my night would never end;
the night of one struck by sorrow is indeed long.

My tears have brought me solace—yet little is that
compared with what the Muslims have endured.

Great and momentous was our calamity
on the evening it was said, “The Messenger has passed.”

We have lost the revelation sent among us,
brought morning and evening by Gabriel.

That is surely what deserves that souls should melt
or almost pour forth in grief.

A Prophet who dispelled our doubts
through what was revealed to him and what he would say,

who guided us so that we feared no misguidance
while the Messenger was our guide.

Among the living we have never seen his equal,
nor among the dead does he have a peer.