93 – ‘Abd Allah narrated to us; Muhammad ibn al-Husayn mentioned it; ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, Abu Khalid al-Umawī, related to us; Maslama the devoted worshipper narrated, from ‘Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja‘far, that al-Hasan al-Basrī used to say:

“Allah has servants who worship as though they had already seen the people of Paradise in Paradise, dwelling there forever, and as though they had seen the people of Hell in Hell undergoing punishment. Their hearts are sorrow-stricken; people are safe from their harm; their needs are settled by Allah; and they keep themselves chaste from worldly attachments. They bore a few short days with patience in exchange for an everlasting rest.

By night their feet stand aligned in prayer, tears streaming down their cheeks while they cry out to their Lord, ‘Our Lord, our Lord!’ By day they are wise, learned, righteous, and devout, as straight and keen as arrows. An onlooker would think them ill, though no illness afflicts them, and he would say, ‘They are confused!’—but a momentous matter has indeed preoccupied those people.”