I met al-Fuḍayl in the Sacred Precinct with that very letter in his hand. He read it, burst into tears, and said, “Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān has spoken the truth and offered sincere counsel.”

Ibn Sahm al-Anṭākī relates: “I heard Ibn al-Mubārak recite:

How can the eyes of those who know ever find repose,
or savor the sweetness of sleep and lie at ease,
while the Fire lies in wait—none can avoid its brink—
and no one knows who will be spared and who will fall?
The scrolls will flutter open in every hand,
exposing what was hidden, as the Almighty looks on.
Then it is either bliss and a life that never ends,
or Hell that spares nothing and leaves nothing.
It flings its inmates down one moment and lifts them the next;
whenever they hope for escape from its anguish, they are thrust back.
So let knowledge benefit its bearer before death comes,
for many have begged thereby to return—yet never returned.”

Isḥāq ibn Sunayn also transmitted these lines from Ibn al-Mubārak:

I am a man who shows no softness to anyone who mocks my faith,
yet I am no reviler of Islam.
I will not abuse Abū Bakr or ʿUmar,
nor—Allah forbid—will I ever revile ʿUthmān;
nor shall I insult the cousin of Allah’s Messenger
until the day I am wrapped in my shroud beneath the earth.