Abu Yaʿla (1) said: ʿUbayd Allah ibn Muʿādh al-ʿAnbarī (2) narrated to us; his father narrated to us; ʿImrān narrated to us, from Ayyūb (3), who said: “Anas became too weak to fast, so he prepared a large bowl (jafnah) of tharīd (bread-and-meat stew) and invited thirty needy persons, feeding them in his stead.” Al-Bukhārī quoted this report in suspended form (4).

Shuʿbah related: from Mūsā al-Sunbulānī I asked Anas, “Are you the last to remain from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He replied, “Some Bedouins are still alive, but as for his Companions, I am the last who remains.” (5)

During his final illness he was asked, “Shall we summon a physician for you?” He answered, “The Physician is the One who made me ill.” While in the throes of death he kept saying, “Prompt me to say: Lā ilāha illā Allah,” and he continued repeating it until his soul was taken. He possessed a small staff (ʿuṣayyah) from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and ordered that it be buried with him. (6)

ʿUmar ibn Shabbah and others said: He died at the age of one hundred and seven years. (7)

Imām Aḥmad stated in his Musnad: Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated to us, from Ḥumayd, that Anas lived one hundred years minus one year.

Al-Wāqidī (8) said: He was the last of the Companions to die in Basra; the same was affirmed by ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, al-Fallās, and others. Historians have differed over the year of his death: some say 90 AH, others 91, 92, or 93 AH—the last being the most widely accepted and held by the majority, and Allah knows best.

[Imām Aḥmad also said: Abū Nuʿaym narrated to me that Anas ibn Mālik and Jābir ibn Zayd both died in the same week in the year 93 AH.]

Qatādah related: When Anas died, Murriq al-ʿAjlī said, “Today half of knowledge has departed.” He was asked, “How so, O Abū al-Muʿtamir?” He replied, “If a sectarian disputed with us over a ḥadīth from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, we would say to him, ‘Come to someone who heard it directly from him.’” (9)