They turned away from him, wailing aloud, and every single one of them feared that the very fate which had overtaken their brother would one day be his own.

Like a flock of unsuspecting sheep, grazing in security, when the butcher suddenly looms—knife in hand, arms bare, head uncovered—

the flock panics, bolts without grazing for even a moment, then, once the butcher has moved off,

returns to its pasture and forgets the calamity that befell its sister. Have we really begun to imitate the beasts, or are we simply following their blind habit? Go back to reflecting on the one who has been carried to the abode of decay; ponder his place beneath the earth, driven into the horror you now behold.

He lies alone in his grave while his estate is divided among his children and his relatives. (1)

They hunch over his wealth, parcelling it out, yet none of them offers praise or gratitude to him for it.

So, O builder of this world, O seeker of its treasures, O you who feel safe from the turning of events,

how can you feel secure against this condition when you must inevitably reach it? How can you take pleasure in a life that is merely the mount that carries you to your death? Or how can you fill yourself with food while you await your appointed end? [Or how can you revel in passions when they are the steeds of afflictions?]

You have packed no provisions for the journey although it draws near, and you are about to set out as a traveller.

Alas for my soul—how long I keep delaying my repentance, while my lifespan is slipping away and death is watching me!

Everything I have sent ahead is inscribed in the pages; the Just Judge, the All-Powerful, will repay it.

How often you patch up your worldly life at the expense of your afterlife, riding the wave of delusion and desire! I see you weak in certainty, preferring the world to the religion. Is this what the Most Merciful has commanded you? Is this why the Quran was revealed? [Do you not recall the severity of the Reckoning and the wretchedness of the final abode? Do you not remember those who amassed and hoarded, raised lofty buildings, adorned and inhabited them—has not their gathering come to nothing and have not their dwellings become graves?]

(2)

You destroy what will endure and build up what is bound to perish; neither the first is preserved nor the second truly flourishing.

If death should take you suddenly and you have earned no good with Allah, will you have any excuse?

Are you content that life should vanish and come to an end while your religion is impaired and your wealth abundant? (3)

Historians differ over the year in which ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, passed away. The view most widely reported from the majority is that he died in this very year—that is, 94 AH—at the beginning of it, at the age of fifty-eight. The funeral prayer was offered for him in al-Baqīʿ and he was buried there.

Al-Fallas said, “ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, ʿUrwah, and Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān all died in the year 94 AH.”