the calls of passion come lightly upon us, while resisting passion bears heavy on our shoulders.
Truthfulness ⦗1⦘ has vanished from our surroundings until, today, not even a description of it can be verified.
We behold no God-fearing soul ⦗2⦘ whose awe might oblige us to fear, nor anyone whose words are genuinely sincere.
So we remain hesitant, bewildered, seeking that truthfulness—yet no path leads us to it. ⦗3⦘

He also said:
Ease up, for every affair will certainly come to an end; release the reins ⦗4⦘ of worry and it will flee.
Every anxiety is followed by relief, and every constriction will widen when it reaches its tightest point.
Affliction—though its term be long—will be cut short by death, or else it too will surely cease.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir ⦗5⦘ gives a lengthy biography of him but does not record the year of his death. I mention him here only approximately, and Allah knows best.

[Year 240 AH]

In this year: The people of Ḥimṣ rebelled against their governor Abū al-Mughīth ⦗6⦘ Mūsā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Rāfiqī ⦗7⦘, for he had killed one of their nobles. They slew a number of his followers and expelled him from their midst. Al-Mutawakkil then sent them another commander and said to the envoy with him, “If they accept him ⦗8⦘, so be it; otherwise, inform me.” They accepted him, whereupon he wrought amazing deeds among them and subjected them to extreme humiliation.

In the same year: Al-Mutawakkil removed the judge Yaḥyā ibn Aktham from the office of chief judge ⦗9⦘, confiscated from him the sum of eighty thousand dinars, and took from him many estates in the lands of Baṣrah. In his stead he appointed Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān ibn ʿAlī to the post of chief judge ⦗10⦘.