Abu Nuʿaym relates: Saʿd ibn Aws narrated to us, from Bilal ibn Yahya, that Hudhayfah was visited while death weighed heavily upon him. He was told, “ʿUthman has been killed; what do you instruct us to do?” He replied, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Abu al-Yaqzan is upon the fitrah (innate nature)’—he repeated this three times—‘and he will not abandon it until he dies, or decrepitude overtakes him.’ (1)
Al-Baghawi reports: Ibn Humayd told us; Harun ibn al-Mughirah told us; ʿAmr ibn Abi Qays, from ʿAmmar al-Duhni, from Salim ibn Abi al-Jaʿd, from Masruq, from ʿAʾishah, who said: “Watch ʿAmmar, for he will die upon the fitrah, unless a slip brought on by old age should befall him.” (2)
Some of its transmitters are deemed weak. A similar report—traced back to the Prophet—is also related from Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas.
ʿAlqamah said: Abu al-Dardaʾ once said to me, “Is there not among you the one whom Allah, on the tongue of His Prophet, protected from Satan?”—meaning ʿAmmar—… the rest of the hadith. (3)
(1) Reported by Ibn Saʿd, 3/1/188. Cited by al-Haythami, Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 9/295, who adds: it is also transmitted by al-Tabarani and al-Bazzar in abridged form, and all their narrators are trustworthy.
(2) Its transmitters are reliable. About ʿAmr b. Abi Qays, Ibn Hajar notes in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, though prone to mistakes.” Hence the tradition is hasan. This is what al-Dhahabi meant by the remark, “there is someone in it who was deemed weak.” Al-Hakim also related it (3/393–394), declared it sahih, and al-Dhahabi concurred.
(3) Recorded by Ahmad, 6/445, 451, and by al-Bukhari (nos. 3742, 3761) in the Book of the Virtues of the Companions, under the chapters on the merits of ʿAmmar and of ʿAbd Allah b. Masʿud, through the isnad: Musa b. Abi ʿAwana – Mughira – Ibrahim – ʿAlqama. The report relates that ʿAlqama entered Syria, prayed two rakʿas and implored, “O Allah, grant me a companion,” whereupon an old man approached and said: “Were there not among you the bearer of the Prophet’s sandals, cushion and water-pot? Was there not among you the one protected from Satan? Was there not among you the keeper of the secret known only to him? How did Ibn Umm ʿAbd recite ‘By the night’?” ʿAlqama recited, and the man replied, “The Prophet, peace be upon him, taught it to me mouth-to-ear.” This is al-Bukhari’s version. Al-Tabari, 30/217–218, records it through several lines of transmission, including this one; Muslim transmits a similar wording (no. 824). See also Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, 4/517 ff. Ibn Hajar discusses it in Fath al-Bari, 8/707, after his commentary on hadith no. 4944.