The Prophet ﷺ planted a stick in the ground in front of him, then planted another beside it, then planted a third farther away. He asked, "Do you know what this is?"They replied, "Allah and His Messenger know best."He said, "This is man, this is his appointed time, and this is his hope. He reaches out for his hope, but his appointed time snatches him away before he attains it."
أن النبي ﷺ غرز بين يديه غرزا، ثم غرز إلى جنبه آخر، ثم غرز الثالث فأبعده ثم قال: هل تدرون ما هذا؟ قالوا: الله ورسوله أعلم. قال: هذا الإنسان وهذا أجله وهذا أمله يتعاطى الأمل يختلجه دون ذلك.
Ahmad (11132) narrated it from Abdul-Malik bin Amr (that is, Abu Amir Aqadi), and Bayhaqi in Zuhd (457) through the route of Abu Ghassan Malik bin Ismail, and Baghawi in Sharh al-Sunnah (4091) through the route of Abu Naeem Fadl bin Dukayn, all of them from Ali bin Ali Rifai, from Abu Mutawakkil (whose name was Ali bin Dawud Naji), from Abu Saeed Khudri, who related it. Its chain of transmission is hasan because of Ali bin Ali Rifai, for he is hasan al-hadith. Haythami said in Majma (10/255), "Ahmad narrated it, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih except for Ali bin Ali Rifai, and he is trustworthy."The hadith was also narrated by Ibn Mubarak in Zuhd (254) from Ali bin Ali Naji, from Abu Mutawakkil Naji, transmitting it as a mursal report, without mentioning Abu Saeed Khudri in the chain. This mursal transmission does not harm the soundness of the hadith, because those who connected it were a group of reliable and firmly established narrators.His saying, "snatches him away," means that death pulls him away. And his saying, "short of that," means short of his hopes.Ali bin Abu Talib said, "This world has departed, turning its back, while the hereafter has arrived, drawing near, and each of the two has its own children. So be among the children of the hereafter, and do not be among the children of this world. For today there is deeds without reckoning, and tomorrow there is reckoning without deeds." Bukhari mentioned this as a suspended report, at greater length, in the chapter on hope from the Book of Raqaq.