438 — Al-Firyābī informed us, saying: ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dimashqī narrated to us, saying: Al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀtikah narrated to us, saying: Sulaymān ibn Habīb narrated to me, from al-Walīd ibn ʿUbādah, that when his father, ʿUbādah ibn al-Sāmit, was nearing death, his son asked him, “Father, give me some final counsel.”

He said, “Sit me up.” When they had seated him upright, he said, “My son, fear Allah. You will not fear Allah until you believe in Allah, and you will not believe in Allah until you believe in divine decree—both its good and its evil—and know that whatever befalls you could never have missed you, and whatever misses you could never have befallen you. I heard the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say: ‘Divine decree is as I have described. Whoever dies holding otherwise will enter the Fire.’”