No dominion that can be ended by death is true dominion; real kingship is the kingship of the One who never dies.

ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubarak said: ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz used to repeat:

You delight in what will perish (1) and rejoice in idle hopes,
just as a dreamer is deceived by pleasures in his sleep.
Your day, O deluded soul, is heedlessness and neglect;
your night is sleep, while destruction dogs your steps.
You labor for what, in the end, you will despise; (2)
cattle live in this world in just the same way.

Muḥammad ibn Kathīr related that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz would rebuke and chide his own soul, saying:

Are you awake today, or are you asleep?
How can one bewildered and wandering bear to sleep?
If you were truly awake at dawn,
the streams of tears would have scorched the channels of your eyes. (3)
Your day, O self-deceived one, is heedlessness and neglect;
your night is sleep, and death stands ever at your side.
You busy yourself with what you will one day hate to reap; (4)
so, too, do the beasts live out their life in this world.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, with his chain of transmission, narrated from Fāṭimah bint ʿAbd al-Malik who said:

“One night ʿUmar awoke and kept saying, ‘Tonight I have seen a marvelous dream.’
I said, ‘Tell it to me.’
He replied, ‘Wait until morning.’
When he had led the Muslims in the dawn prayer and returned, I asked him about it.
He said, ‘It was as though I had been brought to a wide, green land—an emerald carpet—and in it stood a palace that looked like silver. Someone came out and called, “Where is Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah, the Messenger of Allah?” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, approached and entered the palace.

Then another came out and called, “Where is Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq?” He came and entered.
Next a caller announced, “Where is ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb?” He came and entered.
Then, “Where is ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān?” He came and entered.
Then, “Where is ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib?” He came and entered.
Finally a caller cried, “Where is ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz?” I stood, entered, and sat beside my father, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who was on the Messenger of Allah’s left, while Abū Bakr was on his right. Between him and the Messenger of Allah sat a man.

I said to my father, “Who is this?” He answered, “This is Jesus, son of Mary.”
Then I heard a voice call out—there was a light between us that I could not see—and it said, “O ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, hold fast to what you are upon and remain firm in it!”’"}