Jami' at-Tirmidhi
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2483
حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بْنُ حُجْرٍ، أَخْبَرَنَا شَرِيكٌ، عَنْ أَبِي إِسْحَاقَ، عَنْ حَارِثَةَ بْنِ مُضَرِّبٍ، قَالَ أَتَيْنَا خَبَّابًا نَعُودُهُ وَقَدِ اكْتَوَى سَبْعَ كَيَّاتٍ فَقَالَ لَقَدْ تَطَاوَلَ مَرَضِي وَلَوْلاَ أَنِّي سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ " لاَ تَمَنَّوُا الْمَوْتَ " . لَتَمَنَّيْتُ وَقَالَ " يُؤْجَرُ الرَّجُلُ فِي نَفَقَتِهِ كُلِّهَا إِلاَّ التُّرَابَ أَوْ قَالَ فِي الْبِنَاءِ " . قَالَ أَبُو عِيسَى هَذَا حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ صَحِيحٌ .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Harithah ibn Mudarrib reported: ‘We went to visit Khabbab, who had been cauterized in seven places. He said, “My illness has lasted a long time. Were it not that I heard the Messenger of Allah say, ‘Do not wish for death,’ I would have wished for it.” He also said, “A man is rewarded for all his spending except for earth”—or he said, “for building.”’ Abu Isa graded this hadith hasan sahih.
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The Arabic preserves uncertainty in the final phrase: ‘earth,’ or, as an alternative wording, ‘building.’