while you behaved arrogantly.” [Al-Aḥqāf (1): 10]

Isḥāq al-Azraq said: Ibn ʿAwn narrated to us, from Ibn Sīrīn, from Qays ibn ʿUbād, who related:

“I was in the Mosque of Madinah when a man entered whose face plainly showed humility. The people remarked, ‘This man is one of the people of Paradise.’

He performed two brief cycles of prayer, and when he came out I followed him until he reached his home. I entered with him and spoke to him; once he felt at ease, I said, ‘When you walked into the mosque they said such-and-such about you.’

He answered, ‘Glory be to Allah! No one should say what he does not know. I shall tell you the reason:

I saw a dream and recounted it to the Prophet ﷺ. I seemed to be in a green meadow, and at its center stood an iron pillar whose base was in the earth and whose top reached into the sky. At its summit there was a ring, and I was told, “Climb it.”

So I climbed until I seized the ring, and it was said to me, “Hold firmly to the ring.”

I awoke while it was still in my hand. When morning came I went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and told him the dream.

He said, ‘The meadow is the meadow of Islam; the pillar is the pillar of Islam; and the ring is the firm handhold (al-ʿurwah al-wuthqā). You will remain upon Islam until you die.’”

He added: The man was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām (2).

Hammād ibn Zayd transmitted: from ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah, from al-Musayyab ibn Rāfiʿ, from Kharashah ibn al-Ḥurr, who said:

“I arrived in Madinah and was sitting beside an elderly woman in the mosque when an old man entered, leaning on his staff. Someone said, ‘This man is one of the people of Paradise.’

He stood behind a pillar and prayed two cycles, whereupon I went up to him and said, ‘These people claim that you are among…’