He said, “O Abū Muwayhibah, I have been commanded to seek forgiveness for the people of this Baqīʿ, so come with me.” I went out with him, and when he stood in their midst, he proclaimed:

“Peace be upon you, dwellers of the graves. How felicitous is your state in comparison to what people now face. Trials have come like segments of a pitch-black night, each one following the other; the latter is worse than the former.”

He then turned to me and said, “O Abū Muwayhibah, I have been given the keys to the treasuries of the world and everlasting life therein, followed by Paradise, and I have been offered the choice between that and meeting my Lord—and Paradise.”

I replied, “May my father and mother be ransomed for you; take the keys to the treasuries of the world, everlasting life therein, and then Paradise.”

He said, “No, by Allah, O Abū Muwayhibah; I have chosen the meeting with my Lord and Paradise.” He then sought forgiveness for the people of al-Baqīʿ and returned. Thereupon the illness began in which Allah took him. None of the authors of the canonical collections recorded this report; it is related only by Aḥmad (1) through Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm, from his father, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq.

Imām Aḥmad also said (2): Abū al-Naḍr narrated to us, Ḥakam ibn Fuḍayl narrated to us, Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us, from ʿUbayd ibn Jubayr (3), from Abū Muwayhibah, who said: “The Messenger of Allah was commanded to pray for the people of al-Baqīʿ, so he prayed over them three times. When it was the third, he said, ‘O Abū Muwayhibah, saddle my mount for me.’ I saddled it, he mounted, and I walked beside him until we reached them. He dismounted, and I held the animal while he stood—or, he said, remained—over them and declared: ‘Congratulations on what you are in compared to what the people are facing. Trials have come like pieces of a dark night, each following the other; the latter is more severe than the former. So congratulations on what you are in compared to what people face.’ He then returned and said, ‘O Abū Muwayhibah, I have been given—or I have been offered the choice between—the keys of what shall be opened for my community after me along with Paradise, or the meeting with my Lord.’ I said, ‘May my father and mother be ransomed for you; choose us!’ He replied, ‘The matter will revert however Allah wills, but I have chosen the meeting with my Lord.’ After that he remained only seven or eight days before he was taken.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq reported (4) through Maʿmar, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “I was aided by awe, granted the treasures, and given the choice to remain until I witness what will be opened for my community or to hasten; I chose the hastening.” Al-Bayhaqī said: “This is a mursal report, yet it supports the ḥadīth of Abū Muwayhibah.”

Ibn Isḥāq (5) said: Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUtbah related to me, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah, from Ibn Masʿūd, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned from al-Baqīʿ and found me suffering a headache, saying, ‘Oh my head!’ He said, ‘No—by Allah, ʿĀʾishah—it is I who has the headache.’ Then he said, ‘What would it harm you if you were to die before me? I would wash, shroud, pray over, and bury you.’ I replied, ‘By Allah, it is as though I can already see that if you did so, you would have returned…’”}