Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 37563 — The words of Ibn al-Zubayr

It is narrated from Awn bin Abdullah that he said: During the trial of Ibn al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with him), a man was sitting in an orchard in Egypt, worried and sorrowful, scratching at the ground. While he was doing so he raised his head and found a man with a spade standing before him. The man with the spade said: What is the matter, that I find you worried and sorrowful? As though he thought little of him, he said: It is nothing. At that the man with the spade said: If this is for the sake of the world, then the world is a present commodity from which the righteous and the wicked eat. And the Hereafter is a true appointed time in which a powerful King will judge. He will judge between truth and falsehood. He went on until he mentioned that it has joints like the joints of flesh; whoever errs in any of them errs from the truth. When the man heard these things he said: My concern is over the internal affairs of the Muslims. The narrator said: At that the man said: Soon Allah Almighty will save you because of your compassion for the Muslims. And ask: Who is the one who asked of Allah and was not given? Who supplicated to Allah and was not answered? Who relied on Allah and Allah did not suffice him? Who trusted in Allah and Allah did not save him? The narrator said: So I began to say: O Allah, keep me safe and keep others safe from me. He said: Then that trial came to an end, and I suffered no harm from it.