He added, “May Allah have mercy on Saʿd; he was one of the most imposing and tallest of men.
He then went on: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched an expedition against Ukaydir of Dūmah. Ukaydir thereupon sent the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a cloak of brocade woven with gold. The Prophet put it on, ascended—or sat upon—the pulpit without uttering a word, and then came down. The people began to touch the cloak and stare at it, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,
“Are you amazed by this? The hand-towels of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh in Paradise are finer than what you see.”’
Al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī also transmitted it on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, and al-Tirmidhī judged it sound (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ).
Ibn Isḥāq relates, after mentioning that the Throne trembled at Saʿd ibn Muʿādh’s death, that one of the Anṣār composed the following lines:
“In all our hearing the Throne of God has never quaked
At the death of any mortal—save Saʿd, Abū ʿAmr.”
He continues: Saʿd’s mother—namely Kubayshah bint Rāfiʿ ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿUbayd ibn Thaʿlabah al-Khudriyyah al-Khazrajiyyah—lamented him as he was borne on his bier, chanting:
“Woe for Saʿd, my Saʿd—
Firm of resolve and keen of edge,
Nobility and glory all his own,
A horseman ever-ready for the fray,
Filling every breach—
[cleaving helmets, hewing heads].”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Every professional mourner lies except the mourner of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh.”
I (the author) say: He died roughly twenty-five nights after the Confederates withdrew. The Confederates had arrived, as mentioned earlier, in Shawwāl of the fifth year AH and remained for about a month. Thereafter the Messenger of Allah ﷺ marched out to besiege Banū Qurayẓah, staying before them for twenty-five nights. They surrendered to Saʿd’s judgment, and he died shortly after pronouncing his verdict against them—most likely in the closing days of Dhū al-Qaʿdah or the beginning of Dhū al-Ḥijjah of the fifth year AH. Allah knows best.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq likewise states that the conquest of Banū Qurayẓah occurred in Dhū al-Qaʿdah and the early part of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, and that the polytheists presided over that year’s Ḥajj.
Ibn Isḥāq also reports that Ḥassān ibn Thābit composed an elegy for Saʿd ibn Muʿādh:
[The poet’s verses follow.]