Medina, Imam Mālik b. Anas رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَـلَيْه.

He says the first day he met Imam Mālik b. Anas to study, the imam asked his name, before exclaiming:

O Yaḥyā! Work hard to acquire sacred knowledge! Let me encourage you with a story.

Once, a young man from Syria, about your age, came to Medina to gain knowledge of Islam. He used to study with us. Yet, during his days as a student, he passed away.

I never saw a funeral like his. There was not a single scholar or student of knowledge in Medina who did not attend. His funeral prayer was led by a top scholar named Imam RabīꜤah. Then, RabīꜤah, Zayd b. Aslam, Yaḥyā b. SaꜤīd, and Ibn Shihāb—all prominent scholars of the time—lowered the young man into his grave.

Three days after his passing, somebody saw him in a dream. He was seen as a handsome young man, dressed in white clothes, wearing a green Ꜥimāmah, riding a beautiful horse, and descending from the sky. The person who had this dream was amazed to see this. “O young man!”, he asked, “How did you reach such a high rank?"

He replied:

It is my Islamic knowledge that has brought me here. For every topic I learned, Allah granted me a higher rank in Paradise. Because of Islamic knowledge, I was continually blessed with higher ranks. Though I was only a student, Allah raised me to the level of a scholar out of His mercy.

Allah then declared to the angels, "Raise the ranks of My beloved scholars, who are inheritors of My prophets! Surely, I have made