“You will die while holding fast to the firmest handhold (1).”
Its chain of transmission is strong.
Ibn Saʿd said: Ḥammād ibn ʿAmr informed us, Zayd ibn Rufayʿ narrated to us, from Maʿbad al-Juhani, from Yazīd ibn ʿAmīra:
When Muʿādh was at the point of death, Yazīd sat at his head weeping. Muʿādh asked, “What makes you weep?”
He replied, “I weep for the knowledge that has eluded me.”
Muʿādh said, “Knowledge is still there; it has not vanished. Seek it from four people,” and he named them—among them ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, about whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “He is the tenth of ten in Paradise (2).”
Al-Bukhārī, in his History, recorded: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Rabīʿah ibn Yazīd, from Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī, from Yazīd ibn ʿAmīra al-Zubaydī, who said:
When death approached Muʿādh ibn Jabal, he was told, “Give us your counsel, O Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.”
He said, “Seek knowledge from Abū al-Dardāʾ, Salmān, Ibn Masʿūd, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, who embraced Islam; for I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘Indeed, he is the tenth of ten in Paradise (3).’”
Regarding the verse, “and whoever possesses knowledge of the Book” ⦗13:43⦘, Mujāhid said: It refers to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām (4).
Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Yahyā said: Muʿādh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us, from Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, from his father, that he came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “I have recited …”