Lessons learned from the Companions – Death of Ali and Muawiya

Muhammad bin Uqbah said that when death approached, Muawiyah said: “I wish I were an ordinary man from the Quraish living in Dhu Tuwa and that I had never been invested with authority as caliph”
Muhammad bin Seereen said, “When Muawiyah was on the brink of death, he began to mark out the floor. Then he turned his face and marked out another spot on the floor, after which he started to cry and say: “O Allah! Indeed, You said in Your Book “Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him (in worship), but He forgives everything else to whom He wills” [an-Nisa 4:48] Therefore, O Allah, make me amongst those You will forgive”. Al-Utbi narrated from his father that when Muawiya was dying, he quoted the following verses to those present (in at-Taweel poetry): “Death is inevitable because of what we are; consciousness of what lies after death is much more awful and lurid”.