Al-Aʿmash narrated, from Abū al-Zinād: “The jurists of Madinah were four: Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, ʿUrwah, Qabīṣah ibn Dhuʾayb, and ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān—before he entered public office.”
Ibn ʿUmar said: “People beget sons, but Marwān has begotten a father,” meaning ʿAbd al-Malik. On another day, while speaking of the divisions among the community, he saw the young man and remarked, “If only the people would unite behind this youth.”
It is related that ʿAbd al-Malik said: “I used to sit with Buraydah ibn al-Ḥuṣayb. One day he told me, ‘O ʿAbd al-Malik, you possess certain qualities, and you are indeed fit to govern this Ummah. Beware of blood-shed, for I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:
‘A man will be turned away from the gate of Paradise, after he has already gazed upon it, because of no more than a cupping-bowl of blood he spilled from a Muslim without right.’ (1)”
Muʿāwiyah and ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ had praised him even before he became caliph, in a lengthy account.
Saʿīd ibn Dāʾūd al-Zubayrī reported, from Mālik, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd: “The first person to perform voluntary prayer between ẓuhr and ʿaṣr was ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān along with some young men who were with him.” Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib commented, “Worship is not attained through abundant prayer and fasting; true worship is to reflect on Allah’s commands and to abstain from His prohibitions.” (2)
Al-Shaʿbī said: “I never sat with anyone without finding myself superior—except ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. Whenever I quoted a ḥadith, he added to it; whenever I recited poetry, he increased me in it.”
Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ (3) records that Muʿāwiyah wrote to Marwān—who was governor of Madinah in 50 AH—saying, “Send your son ʿAbd al-Malik with the contingent of Madinah to the Maghrib alongside Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥudayj.” He then details at length the young man’s competence, service, and striving in those lands.
ʿAbd al-Malik remained in Madinah until the Battle of al-Ḥarrah, when Ibn al-Zubayr seized the Ḥijāz and expelled the Umayyads. He then accompanied his father to Syria. When rule devolved upon Marwān and the Syrians swore allegiance to him, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays was killed, ʿAbd al-Malik stayed by his father’s side for the whole of his reign—nine months. Marwān did not die until he had designated ʿAbd al-Malik as his successor, then after him ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Thus ʿAbd al-Malik assumed sole authority at the beginning of Ramadan—some say Rabīʿ al-Awwal—of 65 AH, and the people united behind him after Ibn al-Zubayr was killed in Jumādā al-Ūlā of 73 AH, remaining so to this very year.
Thalab relates from Ibn al-Aʿrābī: When allegiance was sworn to ʿAbd al-Malik as caliph, a muṣḥaf was resting in his lap. He closed it and said, “This is the parting between me and you.” (4)