3008—“A man from among the people of Paradise will be brought, and Allah will say to him: ‘O son of Adam, how have you found your dwelling?’ He will say: ‘My Lord, it is the best dwelling.’ He will say: ‘Ask and wish.’ He will say: ‘What could I ask and wish for, except that You return me to the world so that I may be killed in Your cause ten times,’ because of what he sees of the excellence of martyrdom. (In one chain, the wording is: ‘of the honor.’)

“And a man from among the people of the Fire will be brought, and Allah will say to him: ‘O son of Adam, how have you found your dwelling?’ He will say: ‘My Lord, it is the worst dwelling.’ The Lord, Most High, will say to him: ‘Would you ransom yourself from it with an earthful of gold?’ He will say: ‘My Lord, yes.’ He will say: ‘You lie. I asked of you something less than that and easier, but you did not do it.’ Thus, he will be returned to the Fire.”

It was reported by Aḥmad (3/207–208 and 239), Ibn Ḥibbān (9/224/7306), and al-Ḥākim (2/75), through several chains from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Thābit, from Anas—may Allah be pleased with him—who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said … and he cited it. Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria.” Al-Dhahabī concurred with him, and al-Mundhirī endorsed it in al-Targhīb (2/189). It is as they said, and the three additions are al-Ḥākim’s.

Al-Nasāʾī recorded only its first part at the beginning of the Book of Jihad, and it is also a narration of Aḥmad (3/126, 131, 153, and 284) through this route.

Al-Bukhārī (2817), Muslim (6/35), Ibn Ḥibbān (7307), and Aḥmad as well (3/103, 173, 251, 276, and 278) narrated it through Qatādah, from Anas ibn Mālik—while another narration reads: “I heard Anas ibn Mālik saying”—who said … and he cited it. It contains the alternate wording. Another narration from Qatādah is more complete than that given here; it has preceded under no. 172, together with the narration of Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī from Anas.