(8) باب إِذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى رَحْمَةَ أُمَّةٍ قَبَضَ نَبِيَّهَا قَبْلَهَا
Abu Musa reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:
When Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, intends to show mercy to an Umma from amongst His servants He calls back His Apostle to his eternal home and makes him a harbinger and recompense in the world to come; and when He intends to cause destruction to an Umma, He punishes it while its Apostle is alive and He destroys it as he (the Apostle) witnesses it and he cools his eyes by destruction as they had belied him and disobeyed his command.
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2288
In-book reference: Book 43, Hadith 28
USC-MSA web (English) reference(deprecated numbering scheme): Book 30, Hadith 5679