Some people said, “This affliction only struck him because of a grievous sin he committed.” In response, ʿUrwah recited—citing verses that actually belong to Maʿn ibn Aws—

By your life, never have I stretched out my hand to anything suspect,
Nor have my feet carried me toward any act of shame;
Neither my hearing nor my sight ever guided me to it,
Nor did my judgment or my reason point me its way.
So long as I live, I will never walk toward an evil—
Such deeds are unbefitting for the likes of me.
I never put myself before a kinsman in need,
And I favor my guest for as long as he stays with my family.
I know that no calamity has ever befallen me in this world
Except that a youth like me has already been tried with the same. (1)

In another version of the report he said, “O Allah, I had four sons, and You have taken one while leaving three.” Hisham recorded the report in these very words.

Maslama ibn Muḥārib said, “Gangrene set into ʿUrwah’s leg, so it was amputated, and no one had to restrain him. Even that same night he did not forgo his regular portion of devotions.”

Al-Awzāʿī stated, “When ʿUrwah’s leg was laid open he said, ‘O Allah, You know that I never walked with it toward any evil,’ and he recited the two lines quoted above.”

ʿUrwah once saw a man praying very briefly. He called him over and said, “My brother, had you no need to ask of your Lord in that prayer? I ask Allah during my prayer for everything—even for salt.”

He also said, “Many a word of humiliation that I bore patiently later brought me lasting honor.”

And he advised his sons, “If you see a man performing a good deed, know that he has many sisters to that deed; and if you see a man committing an evil deed, know that he has many sisters to that deed. A good deed points to its sister, and an evil deed points to its sister.”

Whenever ʿUrwah entered his orchard he would repeat the verse, “If only, when you entered your garden, you had said, ‘This is what Allah wills; there is no power except with Allah’” (Q 18:39), continuing to say it until he left. And Allah—glorified and exalted—is all-knowing. (2)

It is said that he was born during the caliphate of ʿUmar, but the sound view is that he was born after ʿUmar, in the year 23 AH. (3) As for his death, the most widely accepted report places it in 94 AH; others said 90 AH, 100 AH, 91 AH, 101 AH, 92, 93, 95 AH, or 99 AH. (4) Allah knows best.

ʿAli ibn al-Ḥusayn (5) ibn ʿAli ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Qurashī al-Hāshimī—widely known as Zayn al-ʿAbidīn—his mother being an umm walad