yet we have loved it. Though He urged us to renounce it, we preferred it and greedily pursued it; He foretold the ruin of this world, yet you fortified it; He forbade you to chase after it, yet you chased; He warned you against piling up its treasures, yet you hoarded them. The seductive calls of this deceiving world beckoned you, and you rushed to answer its herald; it enticed you with illusions and fed you vain hopes, so you yielded, submissive to its fantasies. You wallow among its blossoms and ornaments, luxuriate in its delights, tumble about in its cravings, and stain yourselves with its consequences. With the claws of avarice you claw at its vaults, and with the pick-axes of covetousness you dig into its mines.

A man once complained to him about the burden of his many dependents. He replied, “Send me one of them whose provision is not guaranteed by Allah.” The man fell silent.

He also said: “As I was traveling through a mountain pass, I came upon a stone on which was carved in Arabic:
‘Every living soul, though it may endure,
drinks but the draught of life;
So labor hard today and strive,
and fear death, O wretched one.’

“While I stood reading and weeping, a shaggy, dusty man in a cloak of hair approached, greeted me, and asked, ‘Why do you weep?’ I answered, ‘Because of this.’ He took my hand and walked a short distance until we reached a great rock shaped like a prayer-niche. He said, ‘Read, weep, and do not slacken,’ then began to pray. At the top of the rock was a clear Arabic inscription:
‘Seek not prestige—your prestige is worthless
before the Sovereign; rather, mend your state.’
On the opposite side was written:
‘Whoever trusts not in decree and destiny
will meet anxieties of grievous harm.’
On the left side stood:
‘How beautiful is piety, how ugly obscenity;
each shall be seized for what he has earned,
and with Allah lies the recompense.’
And near the base, a span or more above the ground:
‘True success and wealth
lie in fearing Allah and in righteous work.’

“When I had finished reading, I turned—yet the man was gone. I do not know whether he departed or was veiled from me.”

He said: “The deeds that weigh heaviest on the Scale are those that weigh heaviest upon the body. Whoever completes the work will have his wage paid in full; whoever does not work will depart this world for the Hereafter with neither little nor much.”

He also said: “Every ruler who is not just stands on the same footing as a thief; every scholar who lacks scrupulousness is no better than a wolf; and everyone who serves anyone other than Allah is on a level with a dog.”

And he said: “It does not befit one who has humbled himself to Allah in obedience to then abase himself before anyone else in hunger—how much less for one who is already basking in Allah’s favors and sufficiency.”