- Jābir ibn Samurah (may Allah be pleased with him) related:
The people of Kūfah complained to ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) about Saʿd—meaning Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (may Allah be pleased with him). ʿUmar therefore removed Saʿd from office and appointed ʿAmmār (ibn Yāsir) in his place. Their complaints escalated until they even alleged that Saʿd “does not know how to pray properly.” ʿUmar summoned him and said, “Abū Isḥāq, these people claim you do not perform the prayer well.”
Saʿd replied, “By Allah, I used to lead them exactly as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did; I have never deviated from his practice. In the night prayer (ʿIshāʾ) I lengthen the first two rakʿahs (units of prayer) and shorten the last two.” ʿUmar said, “That is what I assumed of you, Abū Isḥāq.”
He then sent with Saʿd a man—or a group of men—to Kūfah to investigate. They left no mosque without asking the worshippers about him, and everywhere the people spoke well of him, until they entered the mosque of Banū ʿAbs. There a man named Usāmah ibn Qatādah, known as Abū Saʿdah, stood up and said, “Since you have put us on oath, I must say that Saʿd neither accompanies the detachments, nor distributes the spoils equally, nor rules with justice.”
Saʿd responded, “By Allah, I shall supplicate with three prayers: O Allah, if this servant of Yours is lying—seeking display and reputation—then lengthen his life, prolong his poverty, and expose him to trials.”
Afterwards, whenever the man was asked about his condition he would say, “I am an old, afflicted man; Saʿd’s supplication has struck me.”
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, the sub-narrator from Jābir ibn Samurah, added: “I later saw him myself—his eyebrows had drooped over his eyes from extreme old age—and he would accost young girls in the streets, pinching them.”
Agreed upon (al-Bukhārī and Muslim).