- Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) took hold of my shoulders and said, ‘Be in this world as though you were a stranger, or a traveler passing along a road.’ Ibn ʿUmar would also say: ‘When evening comes, do not expect to reach the morning; and when morning comes, do not expect to reach the evening. Draw from your health for the time of illness, and from your life for the time of death.’” Reported by al-Bukhari (1).
Vocabulary of the ḥadith
– mankibī: in either the singular or dual form, the point where the shoulder meets the upper arm.
– ʿābir: from ʿabara – yaʿburu (pattern: naṣara), meaning to cross a road and pass beyond it.
– al-sabīl: a road or path; it may be treated as masculine or feminine. Its masculine plural is subul and, when treated as feminine, subol, as noted in al-Miṣbāḥ. An ʿābir al-sabīl is a traveler who does not settle until he reaches his homeland.
– amsayta: from ʾamsā, “to enter the evening.” Evening is the opposite of morning and extends—according to two opinions—from noon to sunset, or to midnight.
– aṣbaḥta: from ʾaṣbaḥa, “to enter the morning.” Morning is the beginning of the day, opposite of evening. Al-Miṣbāḥ, citing Ibn al-Jawāliqī, states that among the Arabs morning runs from the latter half of the night until the sun begins to decline.
– saqamika: saqima – yasqamu (pattern: ʿalima) or saquma – yasqumu (pattern: karuma), saqaman/suqman—illness. Illness is anything that removes a living being from the state of health.