40 – ʿAbdullah narrated to us; he said: Muhammad ibn al-Husayn informed me; Rashid ibn Saʿid narrated to me; Muʿalla ibn ʿIsa narrated to me; and Malik ibn Dinar related:

“I saw al-Hasan in a dream. His complexion was radiant, his face dazzlingly white, and the channels where his tears had flowed shone across the rest of his face because of their brightness. I said, ‘O Abu Saʿid, are you not counted among our dead?’ He replied, ‘Indeed.’ I then asked, ‘To what state have you come in the Hereafter after death? By Allah, your grief and weeping in the days of this world were so prolonged!’

He smiled and said, ‘By Allah, that sorrow has been lifted from us, and the tears were the marker that guided us to the path leading to the stations of the righteous. Through their reward we have settled in the dwellings of the God-fearing, and, by Allah, that is purely the favor of Allah upon us.’

I asked, ‘What, then, do you enjoin me to do, O Abu Saʿid?’ He answered, ‘What I enjoin upon you is this: those whose sorrow lasts longest in this world will have the greatest joy in the Hereafter.’”