Utbah bin Ghazwan delivered a sermon in which he praised Allah and glorified Him, then said, "Now then, this world has announced its own passing and turned away in haste. Nothing remains of it but a last trace, like the last drops in a vessel that its owner drains to the bottom. You are moving on from it to a home that will never pass away, so move on carrying the best of what is at hand."We have been told that a stone dropped from the rim of Hell falls through it for seventy years without reaching its bottom. By Allah, it will be filled. Does that astonish you? We have also been told that the distance between two of the leaves of Paradise's gates is a journey of forty years, and yet a day will come upon that gate when it is packed with the press of the crowd."I remember myself as one of seven men with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and we had no food but the leaves of trees, until the corners of our mouths were covered in sores. I picked up a cloak and tore it in half between myself and Saad bin Malik. I wrapped one half around my waist and Saad wrapped the other around his. Yet today not one of us has failed to become the governor of some province."I seek refuge in Allah from being great in my own eyes and small in the sight of Allah. There has never been a prophethood that did not decline by stages until what came of it in the end was kingship. You will come to know and to experience for yourselves the rulers who follow after us."
و حدثني إسحق بن عمر بن سليط حدثنا سليمان بن المغيرة حدثنا حميد بن هلال عن خالد بن عمير وقد أدرك الجاهلية قال خطب عتبة بن غزوان وكان أميرا على البصرة فذكر نحو حديث شيبان