Abu Yaʿla al-Mawsili (1) reported: “Mujāhid ibn Mūsā narrated to us, Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf narrated to us, Sufyān informed us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān, from al-Qaʿqāʿ ibn Ḥakīm, who said:
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān wrote to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, saying, ‘State your need to me.’ Ibn ʿUmar wrote back: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The upper hand is better than the lower hand; begin with those whom you support.” I therefore ask you for nothing, nor will I refuse any provision that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, sends me through you.’

Ibn Wahb said: “Yahyā ibn Ayyūb narrated to me, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Suwayd ibn Qays, who said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān sent me with one thousand dinars to Ibn ʿUmar. I came and gave him the letter. He asked, ‘Where is the money?’ I replied, ‘I cannot bring it tonight; I will fetch it in the morning.’ He said, ‘By Allah, Ibn ʿUmar will not sleep tonight while he has a thousand dinars!’ He then handed the letter back to me, so I brought him the money and he distributed it (may Allah be pleased with him) (2).”

Among his sayings (may Allah have mercy on him):
“It is astonishing that a believer, who is certain that Allah will provide for him and replace what he spends, should withhold wealth and thereby miss out on a tremendous reward and a praiseworthy reputation.”

When death approached, a sum that belonged to him—three hundred mudds of gold—was brought before him. He said, “By Allah, I wish it were nothing but camel droppings in the desert of Najd (3).”

He also said, “By Allah, I wish I had never been anything remembered. I wish I were this running water or its plants in the land of the Ḥijāz (4).”

Then he said to those present, “Bring me the shroud in which you will wrap me,” and when they did he kept repeating, “Fie upon you! How short is your long cloth, how little is your much!” (5)

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān related—through Ibn Bukayr, from al-Layth ibn Saʿd—that he died on Monday night, thirteen days having passed of Jumādā al-Ūlā in the year 86 AH (6).

Ibn ʿAsākir (7) remarked: “Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān erred in this; the correct year is 85 AH, for he died before his brother ʿAbd al-Malik, and ʿAbd al-Malik died a year later, in 86 AH.”

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān was one of the finest governors—noble, generous, and highly praised—and he was the father of the rightly guided caliph