112. ‘Abd Allah narrated to us—Salamah ibn Shabīb reported—Sahl ibn ʿĀṣim reported—ʿUthmān ibn Ṣakhr said: I heard ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Zayd relate:

“I set out on one of my sea-borne campaigns, taking with me a young servant of mine—a virtuous lad who used to wait on me. The boy died, so I buried him on an island. Yet the earth cast him out three times, each time in a different place. While we stood there wondering what to do, vultures and eagles swooped down and ripped him apart.

“When I returned to Basra I visited the boy’s mother and asked her, ‘What was your son’s spiritual state?’ She replied, ‘Excellent. I often heard him saying, “O Allah, resurrect me from the crops of the birds.”’”