Musnad Ahmad 1153:349

Yunus ibn Muhammad narrated to us, he said: Dawud—meaning ibn Abi al-Furat—narrated to us, from Abdullah ibn Buraydah, from Yahya ibn Ya'mar, from Aisha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that she informed him that she asked the Prophet of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, about the plague. The Prophet of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, informed her: "It was a punishment that Allah, the Exalted and Majestic, would send upon whom He willed, but Allah, the Exalted and Majestic, made it a mercy for the believers. There is no servant who is struck by the plague, and he remains in his land, patient and anticipating the reward, knowing that nothing will befall him except what Allah, the Exalted and Majestic, has written for him, but that there will be for him the like of the reward of a martyr."