However, it has been reported that while he was in good health, he said, “If only my mother had never given birth to me!” He uttered this and similar words out of fear—if the report from him is authentic. Similar statements have been related from a number of people who spoke them out of fear and awe at the terrors of the Day of Resurrection. One of them even said:

“If I were given the choice between being called to account and entering Paradise, or becoming dust, I would choose to become dust.”

Imam Ahmad related that Abū Dharr said, “By Allah, I wish I were a tree that would be cut down.” Abū Nuʿaym also related in Hilyat al-Awliyāʾ (1): He said: Sulaymān ibn Ahmad narrated to us (2); Muhammad ibn ʿAlī al-Sāʾigh narrated to us; Saʿīd ibn Mansūr narrated to us; Abū Muʿāwiya narrated to us; al-Sarī ibn Yahyā narrated to us. He said (3): ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd said:

“If I were made to stand between Paradise and the Fire and were told, ‘Choose which of the two you will be in, or become ashes,’ I would choose to become ashes” (4).

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal related (5): Yahyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us, from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from Masrūq, who said:

A man in the presence of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd said, “I would not like merely to be among the Companions of the Right; I would rather be among those brought near.”

ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd replied, “Yet here is a man who wishes that when he dies, he will not be resurrected”—meaning himself.

The discussion of statements such as this (6)—whether they are prescribed or not—belongs elsewhere. But