84 – Salamah ibn Shabib narrated to me; Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari narrated to us; he said: I heard Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Saji say, “Do you know what I said last night?”
I replied, “It would be shameful for a lowly servant like me to teach a great man such as you what he does not know. Yet you are surely aware that, were the whole world—from the day it was created until it passes away—to be set before me so I could enjoy it, lawfully and without being questioned about it on the Day of Resurrection, and the alternative were that my soul should depart, I would choose for my soul to depart this very instant.”
Ahmad added, “Then he said, ‘Do you not long to meet the One you obey?’”