Ahmad (1) also transmitted it through Ibn Numayr and Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd, from al-Aʿmash, who said, “I heard Abū Ẓabyān relate it.” In his version he said, “I am going to tell you a report I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; were it not for my present condition I would not have narrated it to you. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

“Whoever dies without associating anything with Allah will enter Paradise.”

Imam Ahmad (2) said: “Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā – [al-Layth told me] (3) – related to us; Muḥammad ibn Qays, the preacher (4) of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, narrated to me from Abū Ṣirmah, from Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, that when death came to him he said: ‘I had been concealing from you something I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. I heard him say:

“Were it not that you commit sins, Allah would create a people who would commit sins, and then He would forgive them.”’

In my judgment, this ḥadīth and the one before it are what led Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah to adopt a measure of irjāʾ (the doctrine of postponement) [and to indulge in the other repugnant acts he practiced] (5); because of it he committed many deeds for which he was censured, as we shall mention in his biography. Allah knows best.

Al-Wāqidī said: “Abū Ayyūb died in Byzantine territory in the year 52 AH and was buried near Constantinople. In times of drought the Byzantines seek rain at his grave.”

It is also said that he is buried within the wall of Constantinople, and that over his grave there is a shrine and a mosque that they greatly revere.

Abū Zurʿah of Damascus said: “He died in the year 55 AH.” The first opinion is more reliable, and Allah knows best.

[Abū Bakr ibn Khallād said: “Al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah narrated to us, Dāwūd ibn al-Muḥabbar narrated to us, Maysarah ibn ʿAbd Rabbih narrated to us, from Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yazīd, from Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

‘Two men set out for the mosque and both pray, yet one of them returns with his prayer weightier than the other’s, whereas the other returns and his prayer is not even the weight of a speck. That is according to which of them is more fearful of transgressing Allah’s prohibitions and more eager to hasten to good deeds.’ (7)

And Abū Ayyūb reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to a man who asked him to teach him concisely:

‘When you perform a prayer, pray as though it were your farewell prayer; do not speak words for which you will later have to apologize; and abandon all hope of what is in people’s hands.’ (8)]