97 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; Muhammad b. al-Husayn narrated to me; Hakim b. Jaʿfar narrated to me, from Musmaʿ b. ʿAsim, who said:

“I asked an ascetic from Bahrain, saying, ‘Why is it that the sorrow-stricken person feels his heart respond whenever he wishes, while his eyes pour forth tears at the slightest movement?’

He replied, ‘I shall explain that to you—may Allah have mercy on you. When grief first appears in a man, it roams throughout his body, giving every limb its allotted share. It then reaches the heart and the head and settles there. Whenever the heart is stirred by anything, the burning pain surges upward; it rouses the tears from the recesses of the head until it delivers them to the eye, which then lets them flow and thus clears the eyelids. His sob then catches in his throat, and he rises.’”