827 – ʿAbd Allah related it to us; Ḥārūn told me; Ḍamrah reported to us, from al-Shaybānī, who said:

“We were in Constantinople with Maslamah while the corpses of those who had been killed were being carried past from the catapults, and detachments in their various colours kept coming and going around Maslamah. I then heard a man uttering the istirjāʿ—‘Surely we belong to Allah and surely to Him we return.’ I asked him, ‘Why are you repeating the istirjāʿ, may Allah have mercy on you?’ He replied, ‘I remember when we were with Mālik b. ʿAbd Allah al-Khathʿamī. A Muslim fighter was struck down, and Mālik’s supper was brought to him but he refused to eat. The next morning he began a fast and went three full days and nights without touching any food, grieving over that man, until I actually saw people offering him condolences just as they would console someone for the death of a close relative.’”