It is related from Abū al-Dardāʾ that he said, “Were it not for three things, I would not wish to remain even an hour: the parching thirst of the midday heat, prostration in the depths of the night, and the company of people who choose their words as carefully as the finest fruits are selected.” (1)

Al-Aʿmash—through Ghailān, from Yaʿlā ibn al-Walīd—narrated: “I met Abū al-Dardāʾ and asked, ‘What do you wish for the one you love?’ He answered, ‘Death.’ I said, ‘And if he does not die?’ He replied, ‘Then let his wealth and his children dwindle.’” (2)

Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah reported that Abū al-Dardāʾ said, “Three things I love, though people dislike them: poverty, illness, and death. I love poverty as an act of humility before my Lord; death out of longing to meet my Lord; and illness as an expiation for my sin.” (3)

Al-Awzāʿī—on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from his father—related that Abū al-Dardāʾ’s eye pained him until he lost it. Someone said to him, “Why do you not supplicate Allah?” He replied, “I have not yet finished pleading with Him about my sins; how, then, could I ask Him concerning my eye?” (4)

Ḥarīz ibn ʿUthmān narrated—Rāshid ibn Saʿd said: “A man came to Abū—”