He replied, “We acknowledge before Allah every sin. Do you, in your own private affairs, have sins you fear?”
I said, “Yes.”
He said, “Then what makes you worthier than I of hoping for Allah’s pardon? By Allah, the reform I undertake is no less than the reform you undertake; and whenever I am given a choice between Allah and anything else, I always choose Allah over all besides Him. I am upon a religion in which deeds are accepted and good works are repaid.”
I then realized that he had bested me in argument.
ʿUrwah said, “After that I never heard al-Miswar mention Muʿāwiyah without invoking blessings upon him (1).”
From Umm Bakr: her father used to fast continually, and whenever he arrived in Mecca he would perform seven circuits around the Kaʿbah for every day he had been away and then pray two rakʿahs (2).
Al-Wāqidī said: ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us, from his aunt Umm Bakr bint al-Miswar, from her father: on the day of al-Qādisiyyah he found a golden ewer studded with rubies and emeralds, which Saʿd allotted to him as booty; he sold it for one hundred thousand (3).
In the Musnad of Aḥmad—and Muslim also transmitted it from him—Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm told us, my father told us, from al-Walīd ibn Kathīr, who related to me from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr (4) ibn Ḥalḥalah, that Ibn Shihāb informed him, that ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn told him:
After the killing of al-Ḥusayn we returned from Yazīd and reached Medina, where al-Miswar ibn Makhramah met me and asked, “Is there any need you would like me to fulfil for you?”
I said, “No.”
He said, “Will you give me the sword of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him? I fear the people may overpower you for it. By Allah, if you entrust it to me, no one will lay hands on it until I depart this life. Indeed, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib once sought to marry the daughter of Abū Jahl, and I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him…"