4 – ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; and Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Madīnī, the ascetic, also narrated to me, from ʿUthmān ibn Maṭar, from Thābit, from Muṭarrif, that he used to say:

“O my brothers, apply yourselves diligently to righteous deeds. If the matter turns out as you hope, with Allah’s mercy and pardon, then we will have attained higher ranks. But if the matter proves harsh, as we fear and dread, we will not have to say, ‘Our Lord, bring us out so that we may do righteous deeds other than what we used to do’ (Fāṭir 37). Instead, we will be able to say, ‘We did act—yet even that did not benefit us.’”