—some chests and said, “Who will take them with everything inside? If only they were dung!”

He then ordered the guards, and they ringed his palace.

His sons asked, “What is this about?”

He replied, “Do you think any of this will benefit me in the least?” (1)

Ibn Saʿd reported: Ibn al-Kalbī told us, on the authority of ʿAwānah ibn al-Ḥakam, who said:

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ used to remark, “How astounding that a man on whom death descends while his mind is still sound does not describe it!”

So when death came to him, his son reminded him of that saying and urged, “Describe it.”

He said, “My son, death is too august to be described, but I will try: I feel as though the mountains of Raḍwā rest upon my neck, as though my belly were filled with thorns (2), and as though my very soul were being drawn out through the eye of a needle (3).”

Yūnus narrated, from Ibn Shihāb, from Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr:

When his father was dying he prayed, “O Allah, You commanded certain deeds and forbade others. We abandoned much of what You commanded and wallowed in much of what You forbade. O Allah, there is no god but You.”

Then he clasped his thumb and continued to proclaim the oneness of Allah until his soul departed (4).

Aḥmad narrated: ʿAffān told us, al-Aswad ibn Shaybān told us, Abū Nawfal ibn Abī ʿAqrab told us:

When death approached ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ he was overcome by severe agitation. His son ʿAbd Allāh said, “Why such distress, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to bring you close and entrust you with authority?”

He replied, “My dear son, that is true, and I shall tell you: by Allah, I do not know whether it was out of love or simply to win hearts. Yet I bear witness that he left this world loving two men: the son of Sumayyah and the son of Umm ʿAbd.”

When his agony intensified, he placed his hand where the fetters would lie beneath his chin and said, “O Allah, You commanded us and we neglected; You forbade us and we transgressed; nothing can encompass us but Your forgiveness.”

Those words remained his constant refrain until he died (5).