Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah

Hazrat Hujayr bin al-Rabi‘ says: Hazrat ‘Imran bin Husayn said to me, “Go to your people and stop them from hastening in this matter.” I said, “I am appointed among them, but I am not their leader.” Hazrat ‘Imran bin Husayn said, “Convey this message from me to them: If I were an Abyssinian slave, defective, herding sheep on the top of a mountain until death overtook me, this would be more beloved to me than that I shoot an arrow in either of the two ranks, whether I hit the mark or err.”