Others related: “I heard Abu ‘Uthman al-Nahdi say, ‘One hundred and thirty years have gone by, and there is nothing in me that I do not find changed—except my hope, for I find it just as it was (1).’”

Thabit al-Bunani reports from Abu ‘Uthman that he said, “I know exactly when my Lord—Exalted is He—remembers me.” Someone asked, “How do you know that?” He replied, “Allah the Exalted has said, ‘So remember Me; I will remember you’ (Q 2:152). Therefore, whenever I remember Allah, He remembers me (2).”

He would also say, “Whenever we supplicated Allah, I would declare, ‘By Allah, He has certainly answered us,’ for Allah the Exalted has said, ‘Call upon Me and I will answer you’ (Q 40:60).”

They said that he lived one hundred and thirty years; this was stated by Hushaym and others. Al-Mada’ini and others held that he died in the year 100 AH, while al-Fallas said he died in 95 AH; the soundest view is that he died in 100 AH, and Allah knows best.

[In that same year there also died ‘Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Umar (3) ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, who surpassed his father in worship and in withdrawing from people. He exchanged some beautiful words with his father, advising him (4).]