Musnad Ahmad

Qais bin ‘Abad says that once I was in the mosque when a man came whose face showed clear signs of humility. He performed two short units of prayer. People began to say that this person is among the people of Paradise. When he left, I also followed him until he entered his house. I too entered his house with him and kept talking to him. When he became familiar with me, I said to him, “When you entered the mosque, people said such and such about you.” He said, “Subhan Allah! A person should not say something he does not know. And I will tell you the reason for this. In the time of Prophethood, I saw a dream which I related to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). In that dream, I saw that I was in a lush green garden, in the middle of which was an iron pillar whose lower end was in the ground and the upper end was in the sky, and on top of it was a rope. Someone said to me, ‘Climb up this.’ I said, ‘Now climb up.’ I began to climb it until I grabbed the rope. He said to me, ‘Hold this rope firmly.’ When I woke up, it felt as if that rope was still in my hand. Then I went to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and related this dream. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, ‘That garden was Islam, the pillar was Islam, and that rope was the strong rope, which means you are a Muslim and will remain steadfast upon it until death.’ Qais says, then it became known that he was Abdullah bin Salam (may Allah be pleased with him).