He had resolved to enter Islam as soon as the Messenger of God ﷺ invited him, but ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy reproached him, so he swore that he would not submit until a full year had passed—and he died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah.
Another account, cited by Ibn al-Athīr in his Usd al-Ghābah,(1) states that when death came to him the Prophet ﷺ called him to Islam and he was heard saying, “There is no god but God.”
Imām Aḥmad(3) relates—through Ḥasan ibn Mūsā, Ḥammād ibn Salamah, Thābit, and Anas ibn Mālik—that the Messenger of God ﷺ visited a sick man from the Anṣār and said,
“O maternal uncle, say: ‘There is no god but God.’”
The man asked, “My uncle on my mother’s side or my father’s?” He replied, “No, on your mother’s side.” The man then said, “Is it better for me to say, ‘There is no god but God’?” The Messenger of God ﷺ answered, “Yes.” This ḥadīth is reported only by Aḥmad, may God have mercy on him.
ʿIkrimah and others report that when he died, his son wished to marry his wife, Kubayshah bint Maʿn ibn ʿĀṣim. She sought a ruling from the Messenger of God ﷺ, whereupon God revealed: “Do not marry women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed” (Q 4:22).(4)
Ibn Isḥāq(5) and Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā al-Umawī, in al-Maghāzī, state that this Abū Qays had adopted an ascetic life during the Age of Ignorance: he wore coarse wool, renounced idols, performed the ritual bath after major impurity, avoided women during menstruation, and even considered Christianity before refraining. He set aside a room in his house as a prayer-chamber into which no menstruating woman or sexually impure person could enter. He would say, “I worship the God of Abraham,” having abandoned and detested idols. When the Messenger of God ﷺ arrived in Madinah he embraced Islam, and his Islam was excellent despite his advanced age. He was outspoken in defense of the truth and magnified God even in the pre-Islamic period, composing fine poems—among them his words:
[Ṭawīl]
Abū Qays declares, as dawn breaks upon him:
“Whatever you are able to do of my counsel—do it.”