ʿUbayd ibn Ḥassān related: When ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was at the point of death he said, “Leave me.” Maslamah and Fāṭimah therefore remained seated at the door, and they heard him say, “Welcome, welcome to these faces—they are neither human nor jinn.” He then recited, “That abode of the Hereafter We assign…” to the end of the verse, after which his voice fell silent. Maslamah said to Fāṭimah, “Your companion has been taken.” They entered and found that he had indeed passed away.

Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrated—from Khālid al-Rabaʿī—who said: “We find in the Torah that the heavens and the earth wept over ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz for forty mornings.”

Hishām also reported that when news of his death reached al-Ḥasan, he exclaimed, “The best of people has died.”

Abū Isḥāq al-Jūzajānī said: Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Qurashī told us—Muḥammad ibn Marwān al-ʿUqaylī told us—Yazīd reported:

“The delegation that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz had sent to Caesar to invite him to Islam said: When he learned of our arrival, he made preparations for us, stationing the patricians, the Nestorians, and the Jacobites (1) at his side … until, they said, a messenger came to me with the summons, ‘Answer the call.’ I mounted and went, only to find that they had all dispersed, the patricians were gone, he had set aside his crown, and had stepped down from his throne. He asked, ‘Do you know why I sent for you?’

‘I do not,’ I answered.

He said, ‘The commander of my frontier force has written to inform me that the righteous man ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz has died.’

I began to weep; my weeping grew intense and my voice rose. He asked, ‘Why are you weeping? Are you grieving for yourself, for him, or for the people of your religion?’

I replied, ‘I weep for all three.’

He said, ‘Then weep for yourself and for the people of your religion,