`Uqba b. `Amir told that God's messenger prayed eight years after the battle of Uhud over those who were slain there like one who was bidding farewell to the living and the dead. He then mounted the pulpit and said, "I am one who goes before you and I shall be a witness to you. Your appointed place is the Pond at which I am looking while I am where I am just now. I have been given the keys of the treasures of the earth, and I do not fear for you that you should become polytheists after I am gone, but I fear lest you should long for worldly things (some adding, and fight), and perish like your predecessors." (Bukhari and Muslim.)