sins; yet when he is asked, “Do you long for death?” he says, “No—how could I, when I still have all that I have?” He is then told, “Why not give up what you are doing, then?” He answers, “I have no desire to abandon it, nor do I wish to die until I have abandoned it.”
Ibn ʿUyaynah transmitted from Abū Ḥāzim, who said, “I have found the life of this world to be of two kinds: one portion is mine, and another belongs to someone else. As for the portion that belongs to someone else, even if I pursued it with every stratagem in the heavens and the earth I could never reach it. Another person’s provision is withheld from me just as my provision is withheld from him.”
Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān reported that Abū Ḥāzim said, “Any deed that makes you loathe the thought of dying—leave it, and then it will no longer matter when death comes to you.”
Muḥammad ibn Muṭarrif related: Abū Ḥāzim said, “No servant puts right what lies between himself and Allah without Allah’s putting right what lies between him and other people; and no servant corrupts what lies between himself and Allah without Allah’s corrupting what lies between him and other people. To court the favor of One Face is easier than courting all faces: if you win His favor, every face turns toward you; but if you spoil what is between you and Him, every face will despise you.”
Abū Ḥāzim also said, “Hide your good deeds just as you hide your bad ones.”
Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ narrated: Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “Abū Ḥāzim once came in to the governor of Medina, who said to him, ‘Speak.’ He replied, ‘Look at the people standing at your gate: if you bring the righteous close, the wicked will leave; but if you bring the wicked close, the righteous will go away.’”
Abū Ḥāzim said, “I fear being barred from duʿāʾ (supplication) even more than I fear being denied an answer.” (1)
He also said, “A man may commit a sin that turns out to be more beneficial to him than any good deed he has ever performed—and likewise, he may perform a good deed that harms him more than any sin.”
And he said, “Two qualities—who will guarantee them for me? Your giving up what you love, and your bearing patiently what you dislike.”