Al-Layth narrated to us, through ʿAqīl, from Ibn Shihāb,
that Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī informed him
that Yazīd ibn ʿUmayrah—one of the companions of Muʿādh ibn Jabal—said:
“He would never sit in a gathering without saying, ‘Allah is the just Judge; blessed is His name; the doubters have perished …,’ and then he would relate the rest of the report.

Among the words he transmitted I once asked Muʿādh, ‘How can I be sure that a wise man will not utter a word of misguidance?’
He replied, ‘Indeed—shun from the speech of the wise those sensational statements about which people say, “What is this?” Yet do not let that keep you from him, for he may retract and follow the truth once he hears it; the truth is accompanied by light.’ (1)

This wording is that of Ibn Qutaybah.

Sulaymān ibn Bilāl—on the authority of Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah (2), from Ayyūb ibn Khālid, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Rāfiʿ (3), from Umm Salamah—reported:
When Abū ʿUbaydah was struck down, he appointed Muʿādh ibn Jabal as his successor during the plague of ʿAmwās. The agony intensified, and the people cried out to Muʿādh, “Pray to Allah to lift this calamity from us!”
He said, “It is not a calamity; rather, it is the supplication of your Prophet, the death of the righteous before you, and a martyrdom with which Allah singles out whomever He wills among you.

“O people, there are four conditions; whoever can keep them from overtaking him, let him do so.”
They asked, “What are they?”
He replied, “A time will come when falsehood is openly manifest, and a time will come when a man will say, ‘By Allah, I do not know what I am’—he will neither live upon insight nor die upon insight.” (4)

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, in his Musnad, recorded: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī narrated to us; Masarah (5) ibn