and wrote:

From Ibn Abī Sarḥ to ʿUthmān: “Amr has encroached upon the land-tax placed under my charge.”

Amr, for his part, wrote: “Ibn Saʿd (1) has thwarted my war strategy.”

Accordingly, ʿUthmān dismissed Amr and transferred responsibility for the land-tax to Ibn Abī Sarḥ (2).

Ibn Lahīʿah transmitted—on the authority of Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb—who said:

“After ʿUthmān was killed, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd remained in ʿAsqalān. He was unwilling to side with Muʿāwiyah, saying, ‘I shall never align myself with a man whom I know was partial to the killing of ʿUthmān.’ He stayed there until he died (3).”

Saʿīd ibn Abī Ayyūb reported: Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb told me:

“When Ibn Abī Sarḥ was on his death-bed at al-Ramla—having gone there to escape the turmoil—he spent the night asking, ‘Has dawn broken?’ and they would reply, ‘Not yet.’ When daybreak was imminent he said, ‘Hishām, I can feel the chill of dawn; look outside.’ Then he prayed, ‘O Allah, let the last deed of my life be the dawn prayer.’ He performed ablution, prayed, reciting in the first rakʿah the Opening of the Qur’an and al-ʿĀdiyāt, and in the second the Opening and another surah. He gave the salutation to his right, and as he turned to salute to his left, his soul was taken—may Allah have mercy on him.

It was noted earlier that he died in the year 59 AH, yet the sounder view is that his death occurred during the caliphate of ʿAlī (4).