Yahya b. Sa'id said that God’s messenger was sitting when a grave was being dug in Medina. A man looked down into the grave and said, "What a bad-resting-place for a believer!" God’s messenger thereupon retorted, "What a bad thing you have said!" and the man replied, "I did not mean that; I meant that being killed in God’s path [is more excellent]." God’s messenger said, "Nothing compares with being killed in God’s path. There is no other region in the earth in which I would prefer my grave to be," saying it three times.
Malik transmitted it in mursal form.