Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 3274 — The believer's love of meeting Allah

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that Abu Uthman used to sit with him in Kufah. Once he was sitting on a platform of his, and he had two wives who were of high standing and possessed of beauty, and from them he had children who appeared the most handsome of all children. Meanwhile a sparrow chirped over his head and dropped its droppings, so he brushed it off with his hand and then said: "By the One in whose Hand is the soul of Abdullah! That the family of Abdullah should die and then I follow after them is dearer to me than that this sparrow should die."
Takhrij: Imam Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi narrated this report in his Musnad (371) and Imam Ahmad in al-Zuhd (901), and its chain is sahih (authentic).