Rufaydah, who used to tend the wounded. The Prophet ﷺ would pass by him and ask, “How are you this evening?” and in the morning he would say, “How are you this morning?” Saʿd would give him an update—and the narrator mentioned the whole story. He went on to say: The Prophet ﷺ hurried on foot toward Saʿd, and some of his Companions complained of the pace. He replied, “I am afraid the angels may reach him before us and wash him as they washed Ḥanẓalah.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived at the house while Saʿd was being washed, and Saʿd’s mother was weeping over him, reciting:
“Alas for Saʿd, for Saʿd—
so prudent, so resolute!”

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Every wailing woman exaggerates—except Saʿd’s mother.”

When they brought him out, the people remarked, “We have never carried a corpse lighter than his.” The Prophet ﷺ answered, “Why should he not feel light to you when so many angels—such a number as has never before descended—have come down and are carrying him along with you?”

Shuʿbah said: Simmāk ibn Ḥarb told me, “I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaddād say: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered upon Saʿd ibn Muʿādh while he was breathing his last and said, ‘May Allah reward you well, O leader of your people. You have fulfilled what you promised Allah, and Allah will surely fulfill for you what He promised you.’”

Ibn Numayr said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar narrated to us from Nāfiʿ, who said, “It has reached me that seventy thousand angels who had never before descended to the earth attended Saʿd.”

Another narrator transmitted the report from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Nāfiʿ, and attributed it to Ibn ʿUmar.

Shabābah said: Abū Maʿshar related to us from al-Maqburī: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ buried Saʿd he said, “Had anyone been spared the constriction of the grave, Saʿd would have been spared; yet he was squeezed once, so that his ribs interlaced, on account of urine.”

Yazīd ibn Hārūn said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn—