An Orchard for a Date Palm in Paradise

Anas ibn Maalik narrated that a man said to the Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "O messenger of Allah so-and-so owns a date palm, and I wanted to build a fence using that date palm to make the fence. So command him to give me the date palm to build a straight fence with it."

The prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to the man: "Give it to him in return for a date palm in paradise. " But he refused.

Then Abu Ad-Daḥdaaḥ said to the man: "I would give you my orchard for your date palm."

The man agreed. So he went to the prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said to him: "O messenger of Allah, I had bought the date palm in return for my orchard. So give it to him, for I had given it to you."

So, the messenger of Allah (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "How many a hefty [date] clusters [are waiting] for Abu Ad-Daḥdaaḥ in the paradise!" he said this repeatedly.

Then Abu Ad-Daḥdaaḥ went to his wife and said: "O Um Ad-Daḥdaaḥ, get out of the orchard, for I have sold the orchard in return for a date palm in paradise."

So she told her husband: "Profitable indeed is this sale!".

Moral

From this story we learn about the zeal and eagerness that the Sahaba had to earn paradise, so much so that they often gave away huge sums of wealth and property for it, just like Abu ad-Dahdaah did in the story. The price for Paradise is so dear that a Muslim should strive to gain it, and sacrifice that which perishes for the everlasting.