al-Rudh to Basra in the year 128 AH, when I was five—perhaps six—years old. He had fled from Marw al-Rudh at the time of the turmoil—that is, the appearance of Abu Muslim, the champion of the Abbasid cause.
He said: I heard al-Nadr shortly before his death say, “I am eighty years old,” and his illness lasted for about six months.
He added: He died at the beginning of 204 AH.
Abu Bakr ibn Manjawayh gave a similar date for his death and said that his grave is in Marw.
He was counted among the most eloquent of people and a leading scholar of Arabic letters and of the historical battles and days of the Arabs.
Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Quhzadh said: He died on the last day of Dhu l-Hijjah in 203 AH and was buried on the first of Muharram.
Judge Abu Muhammad ʿAbd al-Khaliq ibn ʿUlwan told us in 694 AH; Imam Muwaffaq al-Din ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad al-Maqdisi told us in 611 AH; Abu al-Maʿali Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ghani informed us; Nasr ibn Ahmad al-Qariʾ informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUbayd Allah informed us; al-Husayn ibn Ismaʿil the judge narrated to us; Ahmad ibn Mansur Zāj narrated to us; al-Nadr ibn Shumayl narrated to us; Yūnus narrated, from Abu Ishaq, from Zayd ibn Arqam, who said:
“I was suffering from an eye ailment, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to visit me and said, ‘O Zayd! What do you think if your two eyes were taken because of what afflicts them?’ I replied, ‘Messenger of Allah, then I would be patient and hope for the reward.’ He said, ‘Then you will meet Allah with no sin upon you.’”
This is a sound (ḥasan) hadith.
It was also recorded by Abu Dawud (1) through the narration of Yūnus ibn Abī