740. ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; Dawud ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: ʿAbthar narrated to us; Burd informed us, from Hizam ibn Hakim, who said: Abu al-Dardaʾ declared, “If you knew what we shall face after death, you would not eat food out of appetite, nor drink out of desire, nor would you enter a house to seek its shade. Instead, you would hurry out onto the bare earth, beating your chests and weeping over yourselves. I myself would wish to be a tree that is cut down and then eaten.”

Burd added: “It has reached me that Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (Allah be pleased with him) once saw a bird and said, ‘How fortunate you are, little bird! You eat from the fruits, rest beneath the trees, and return to your Lord without ever being called to account.’”