191 – Muḥammad ibn al-Mughīra narrated to us, and in my grandfather’s notebook al-Kalbī wrote: A man died in Medina, and his father was seized by an intense, anguished grief. One night the father was shown in a dream: “Go to your son’s grave and bid him farewell.” He therefore set out on foot until he reached the grave. The man had never composed poetry, yet words were placed upon his tongue and he recited:

“O dweller of the grave, now firmly enclosed,
you have stirred within me a sorrow as long as decay itself.
A grief unending, my son, that has never subsided;
since calamity struck me, sleep has fled my eyes.
How fearsome is what has come to pass and caused to flow
the choking pangs of death and the anguish it decrees,
and the constriction of the grave in which pain resides.”

He then turned to leave, but a voice called out from behind him:

“Listen, and I shall tell you plainly—
a report clearer than the brightness of mid-morning:
The pangs of death and the gloom have been lifted,
and after acceptance came unbounded joy.
Our declaration of tawḥīd (pure monotheism) remained unsullied;
for that you have been granted abundant reward and sufficiency.
Gardens of Firdaws, a delighted repose for the youth—
there they will be invited to enjoy whatever they wish.”

The voice then fell silent, and the man departed; thoughts of his son never again burdened his mind until he himself passed away.