“My fortitude before the gloaters I display to them,
For the blows of fate shall never make me cower;
And when Death sinks in its talons,
You will find that every charm is worthless.”(1)

Ismaʿil ibn Abi Khalid narrates, from Qays, who said:
Muʿawiyah stretched out his hands—thin like two palm fronds—and said, “What is this world but what we have already tasted and tried? By Allah, I wish I had lingered among you only three days more and then departed to Allah.”

They replied, “(May you go) to Allah’s forgiveness and His good pleasure.”

He said, “To whatever Allah wills. Allah knows that I have not been remiss, and had Allah wished to change matters, He would have changed them.”(2)

ʿAmr ibn Maymun relates: “Muʿawiyah died while his son Yazid was at Huwwarin.”(3)

Abu Mushir said: Khalid ibn Yazid narrated to us; Saʿid ibn Hurayth narrated to me, saying:

“Muʿawiyah died, and the people hurried to the mosque. I came too, and when the forenoon had advanced they were still weeping in the Khadraʾ Palace, while his son Yazid was out in the countryside,(4) he being the designated heir. He had been staying with his maternal uncles of the Banu Kalb, and he arrived wearing their dress. We went out to greet him; he was mounted on a Bactrian camel that paced with a lively gait.

He said: He wore neither turban nor sword; he was of imposing stature, stout in body, and he made his way to—