Al-Bukhārī (1) and Muslim (2) both relate—from al-Zuhrī, through ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah, on the authority of ʿĀʾishah and Ibn ʿAbbās—that they said:

“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was overcome by the agony of illness, he would lay a cloak over his face; whenever the distress intensified, he would uncover his face and say while in that condition:

‘May Allah’s curse be upon the Jews and the Christians; they turned the graves of their prophets into places of worship,’

warning (his community) against what they had done.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī (3) said: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Rajāʾ al-Adīb informed us; Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār narrated to us; Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Sufyān, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said:

“I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, three days before his death, say: ‘Think well of Allah.’”

In another report, likewise transmitted by Muslim (4) through al-Aʿmash, from Abū Sufyān Ṭalḥah ibn Nāfiʿ, from Jābir, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Let none of you die except while holding a good opinion of Allah Most High.”

In still another ḥadīth, the Almighty says:

“I am as My servant supposes Me to be, so let him think the best of Me.” (5)

Al-Bayhaqī (6) further stated: al-Ḥākim narrated to us; al-Aṣamm narrated to us; (7) Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us; Abū Khaythamah Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; Jarīr narrated to us, from Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Qatādah, from Anas, who said:

“The dominant counsel of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when death approached him was: ‘The prayer, and those whom your right hands possess,’ repeating it until his throat rattled with it and his tongue could scarcely utter the words. (8)”

Imām Aḥmad (9) likewise reported: Asbāṭ ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; al-Taymī narrated to us, from Qatādah, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said:

“The parting advice of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when death came to him was: ‘The prayer, and those whom your right hands possess,’ repeating it until his chest rasped with it and his tongue could hardly articulate it.”

This was also transmitted by al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Mājah (10) through the narration of Sulaymān ibn Ṭarḵān—who is al-Taymī—from Qatādah, from Anas with the same wording; and in another report of al-Nasāʾī (11), from Qatādah, from one of his companions, from Anas.