My father narrated it without tracing it back to the Prophet, saying that the Angel of Death came to Musa and said, "Answer your Lord."Musa struck the Angel of Death's eye and gouged it out. The angel returned to Allah
and said, "You sent me to a servant of Yours who does not want to die, and he has gouged out my eye."So Allah restored his eye to him and said, "Go back to My servant and say to him, 'Is it life you want? If you want life, then place your hand on the back of a bull, and for every hair your hand encloses you will live a year.'"Musa asked, "And then what?"The angel replied, "Then death."Musa said, "Then now, my Lord, sooner rather than later."
حدثنا حسن حدثنا ابن لهيعة حدثنا أبو يونس
أبي لم يرفعه قال جاء ملك الموت إلى موسي فقال أجب ربك فلطم موسى عليه السلام عين ملك الموت ففقأها فرجع الملك إلى الله عز وجل فقال إنك بعثتني إلى عبد لك لا يريد الموت وقد فقأ عيني قال فرد الله إليه عينه وقال ارجع إلى عبدي فقل له الحياة تريد فإن كنت تريد الحياة فضع يدك على متن ثور فما دارت يدك من شعرة فإنك تعيش لها سنة قال ثم ماذا قال ثم الموت قال فالآن يا رب من قريب
Its chain of transmission is sahih, Bukhari and Muslim narrated it, and in a version with Muslim, he said, "So Allah restored it to him."This hadith should not be objected to based on the doubts some have raised, for the answer to them is clear.First, if it is said, "Gouging out an eye is an injustice, so how could it happen at the hands of a prophet?" We answer that Musa did not know that this was the Angel of Death, or that Allah had sent him to him. Rather, he assumed he was a human being, just as Ibrahim and Lut assumed that the angels who came to them as men were human beings. So defending himself was a necessary act. Perhaps he also assumed that the angel was not obligated to take his soul, so he asked for a delay. And perhaps he did not intend to gouge out the eye at all, just as happened with the Egyptian whom he killed when he wanted to free the Israelite from him, and the blow ended up being fatal.Furthermore, there is nothing preventing the sending of the angel to take his soul from not being obligatory, for it is reported in sahih hadith that prophets do not die until they are given the choice between death and life. So the angel knew that death was not obligatory at that hour, and this is why he did not rush to take his soul.