118 – ‘Abd Allah narrated to us; he said: Muhammad ibn al-Husayn informed me; Rashid Abū Saʿīd narrated to us; ʿĀṣim al-Khalqānī narrated to me; he said: al-Rabīʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said:

“Allah has servants who keep their stomachs hollow for His sake by abstaining from unlawful food, lower their eyelids for His sake so as not to look upon sinful scenes, and even disregard their eyes when words around them become confused, hoping that the darkness of their graves will be dispelled when the earth encloses them between its layers. In this world they are heavy-hearted, yet their sights are fixed on the Hereafter. The vision of their hearts, through faith in the unseen, has reached the heavenly realm, where they have beheld the magnificent reward they seek; by Allah, that vision has only increased them in earnestness and exertion as they contemplate what lies within their hopes. They are the people who find no rest in this life, yet they are the very ones whose eyes will be cooled tomorrow by the arrival of death upon them.”

He would then weep until his beard was soaked.