55 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā narrated to me; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Khuzāʿī narrated to us; a man from Banū Sulaym related to me. He said:

Muʿāwiyah once spoke with a man of Banū Sulaym called ʿAmr ibn Masʿadah, who had come in to visit him. The man was a brother of Abū Sufyān and an old friend. When Muʿāwiyah recognized him he asked, “How are you? How is your condition?”

He replied, “Commander of the Faithful, why enquire about someone whose skin has shrivelled and whose fruit has been cut off, whose hair has turned white and whose back has bent? In me the things I had hoped would diminish have only increased, while what I wanted to endure has grown weak. I now forswear women—though they once were the cure—and I have come to loathe food that used to be a delight. My stride has shortened, my lapses have multiplied, my gall has been rubbed raw by constant decay, and I have become a dead weight upon the earth. My limbs have drawn in upon one another: they have grown thin, weak, weary, and withered. Little movement remains in them, much trembling afflicts them, and they have taken a dislike to life itself. My sleep is a torpor, my understanding comes and goes, my nights are full of mishaps—just as your uncle said:

I have risen an aged, hoary-headed man, anxious about tomorrow:
Patch me up today, my friend—if not today, then after tomorrow.

Muʿāwiyah wept, ordered that money, clothing, and other goods be given to him, and had him conveyed to al-Ṭāʾif