98 – ‘Abd Allah narrated to us; Muhammad ibn al-Husayn related it; Ahmad ibn Sahl al-Urdunni transmitted it; and ‘Abbad, Abū ‘Utbah al-Khawwāṣ, said:
A man from among the ascetics—one of those who used to wander the lands—told the following story:
“I had no concern for anything in this world and found no pleasure except in meeting them—meaning the abdāl and the other ascetics. One day I reached a deserted stretch of coastline where no people lived and to which no ships ever moored. Suddenly a man emerged ⦗40⦘ from the sea by those cliffs. When he saw me, he ran off at full speed, and I chased after him. He stumbled, fell on his face, and I caught up with him. I said, ‘May Allah have mercy on you—who are you running from?’ He did not answer. I said, ‘I seek only what is good; teach me.’ He replied, ‘Cling to the truth wherever you may be. By Allah, I do not commend myself so as to invite you to do what I have done.’ Then he cried out once and fell dead.
I stood there, unsure what to do with him, and night overtook us. I withdrew a little way off and lay down to sleep. In my dream I saw four men descend upon him from the sky, mounted on horses. They dug a grave for him, shrouded him, offered the funeral prayer over him, and then buried him.
I awoke in terror at what I had seen, and sleep left me for the rest of the night. At dawn I went to the spot and found no trace of him. I kept looking until I noticed a freshly dug grave, and I supposed that it was the very grave I had seen in my dream.”