- ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Yaḥyā related to me, saying: ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmārah narrated to us, from an unnamed elder, who said:
“I left Basra intending to reach Asqalan. On the way I traveled with a company of people until we arrived at Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem). When I was about to leave them they said to me, ‘We advise you to observe taqwā (God-consciousness) and to keep to the station of waraʿ (scrupulous piety), for waraʿ will bring you to zuhd (ascetic renunciation) in this world, and zuhd in this world will bring you to the love of Allah.’
“I asked them, ‘What, then, is waraʿ?’ They wept until my heart was rended out of compassion for them. Then they said, ‘O man, waraʿ is self-accountability.’
“I said, ‘And how is that done?’ They replied, ‘You call your soul to account with every glance, every morning and every evening. When a person is wary and intelligent, excess never overtakes him. But once he enters the rank of waraʿ, bears hardship, and swallows anger and bitterness, Allah grants him relief and patience. Know that patience stands in relation to faith as the head to the body, and the linchpin of this whole matter is patience.
“As for zuhd, it means that a man remains upon a level of ease to which his soul is content. As for the one who loves Allah, he ever deems his own deeds insignificant; even if his provision is constrained and withheld, the very constriction only increases him in love for Allah and draws him nearer to Him.’”
He went on to report the hadith in full detail.