He then continued, as was his habit, to teach the people and deliver lessons in the various branches of knowledge (1).

In 726 AH a controversy flared over the issue of shadd al-rihāl (2)—undertaking a deliberate journey on mounts to the graves of prophets and the righteous. The debate intensified when the people of vain desires came across an answer the Shaykh had written on the matter, tampered with it, and attributed to him what he had never said. Their aims were fulfilled when a royal decree arrived ordering his imprisonment in the Citadel on Monday, the sixth of Shaʿbān of that same year. The sincerity of his reliance upon his Lord—may Allah have mercy on him—became evident when he welcomed the decree with cheerfulness and said, “I had been expecting this, and in it lies great good” (3).

[His Death]
The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—remained confined in the Citadel for two years, three months, and a few days. During that entire period he stayed devoted to worship, Qurʾān recitation, writing, and refuting those who opposed him, until he passed away on the night of Monday, the twentieth of Dhu al-Qaʿdah in the year 728 AH. May Allah envelop him in vast mercy, grant him an abundant reward, and lodge him in the spacious gardens of Paradise.