Even so, he left behind an immense estate: gold that had to be hacked with axes until the men’s hands blistered (1); one thousand camels, one hundred horses, and three thousand sheep grazing in al-Baqiʿ.

His wives were four; one of them accepted a settlement for her share—one quarter of the one-eighth—for eighty thousand (2).

When he died, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān led the funeral prayer over him, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ carried his bier, and he was buried in al-Baqiʿ at the age of seventy-five.

He was fair-skinned with a reddish tinge, handsome of face, delicate-skinned, large-eyed (3), long-lashed (4), aquiline-nosed (5); he wore his hair long, had broad palms and thick fingers, and he did not dye his grey hair—may Allah be pleased with him.

Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī (6)—whose name, according to the more common view, was Jundub ibn Junādah—embraced Islam early in Mecca, being the fourth or fifth person to do so. The story of his conversion was mentioned earlier, before the Hijrah. He was the first to greet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with the greeting of peace. He then returned to his land and his people, remaining there until the Messenger of Allah ﷺ migrated to Madinah; he himself migrated after the Battle of the Trench. Thereafter he accompanied the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in both residence and travel and transmitted many hadiths from him.

Numerous reports extol his virtues. Among the most famous is what al-Aʿmash narrated from Abū al-Yaqẓān ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmayr, from Abū Ḥarb ibn Abī al-Aswad, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Neither the sky has ever shaded nor the earth carried anyone more truthful in speech than Abū Dharr.” (7) This chain, however, is weak.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away and Abū Bakr after him, Abū Dharr went to Syria and stayed there until a dispute arose between him and Muʿāwiyah. ʿUthmān therefore recalled him to Madinah. He later settled in al-Rabadhah, where he remained until he died in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that year. With him were only his wife and children, who were unable to bury him until ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd arrived from Iraq with a group of his companions. They witnessed his death, and he instructed them regarding his burial—though it is also said they arrived afterward and undertook the washing of his body.