Chapter: Inscriptions Recited from Graves
200 – Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Arzī narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Wāqid Abū ʿAmr al-Ṣaffār transmitted from Mālik ibn Dīnār, who said: “I read the following words engraved upon a grave on the road to Syria:

O travellers, press on—your journey’s end is near;
A dawn will come when you yourselves no longer steer.

Spur on your mounts, yet slacken not each rein,
Before death strikes and duties still remain.

We were mortals as you are; time altered our estate;
Before long you will be as we are—such is fate.”