—four in all—so You have taken one and left me three. If You have tried me, You have indeed granted wellbeing(1); and if You have taken, You have indeed spared(2).

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUrwah narrated: My father looked at his leg as it lay in the basin and said, “Allah knows that I have never walked with you toward any act of disobedience whatsoever, and I know that too.”(3)

Hammād ibn Zayd reported from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah that his father used to fast day after day without interruption. He once said, “My children, ask me your questions. I have been left idle until I almost forget, yet when I am asked about a hadith, the doors of narration for two whole days are opened up for me.”(4)

Al-Zuhrī said, “ʿUrwah used to win people’s hearts through his teaching of hadith.”(5)

Abū Usāmah, from Hishām, said: His father died while fasting, and people kept telling him, “Break your fast,” but he would not.(6)

Sulaymān ibn Maʿbad reported: al-Aṣmaʿī told us, from Ibn Abī al-Zinād, from his father, who said:

Musʿab, ʿAbd Allāh, and ʿUrwah—the sons of al-Zubayr—together with Ibn ʿUmar once gathered in the Hijr and said to one another, “Make a wish.”

ʿAbd Allāh said, “As for me, I wish for the caliphate.”

ʿUrwah said, “I wish that knowledge be transmitted from me.”

Musʿab said, “As for me, I wish for the governorship of Iraq, and to be joined in marriage to ʿĀʾishah daughter of Talḥah and Sukaynah daughter of al-Ḥusayn.”

As for Ibn ʿUmar, he said, “I wish for forgiveness.”

They attained what they wished for, and it is hoped that Ibn ʿUmar has likewise been forgiven.(7)