Sufyān b. ʿUyayna said: “When God had brought Joseph and his family together again and had bestowed upon him the fullness of his favor, Joseph longed for God and said: ‘O my Lord, thou hast given me to rule, (and thou hast taught me the interpretation of tales. O thou, the originator of the heavens and earth, thou art my friendin this world and the next. O receive me to thee in true submission, and join me with the righteous)’” (12:101). Likewise ṣalih b. Ḥassānsaid: “When death came to Hudhayfa, he said, ‘This is my last hour in this world. O my God, thou knowest that I love thee. Grant me the blessing of meeting thee.’ And then he died.”

It is related from Humayd b. ʿAbd al-Raḥman al-Ḥimyarī that a man called Ḥumama, who was among the Companions of the Messenger of God, came to Isfahan during the caliphate of ʿUmar, may God pleased with him, and said: “O my God, Ḥumama claims that the object of his love is to meet thee. If Ḥumama is truthful in his claim, then determine his lot in accordance with his truthfulness, but if he is false, then determine his lot in accordance with his falseness. O my God, do not send Ḥumama back from this journey of his.” Then, according to Ḥumayd, Ḥumama was stricken with an ailment in his belly and died in Isfahan. Abū Mūsā aroseand said: “O people, by God, [173] neither among the things we have heard from your Prophet nor among the things that have come to our knowledge otherwise have we heard anything but that Ḥumama died a martyr.”

From Jābir we have this report: “I heard Yazīd [b.] Marthad say: ‘By God, were I made to choose between living in this world a hundred years, worshipping God and not disobeying him for a single moment, and death, I would choose death.’ ‘Why?’ I asked him. ‘Out of longing for God, his Prophet, and his righteous servants,’ he replied.”