Ibrāhīm al-Harbī, quoting Dāwūd ibn Rushayd from Abū ʿAbd Allāh the Sufi, related that Jesus said (1): “The seeker of this world is like one who drinks seawater; the more he drinks, the thirstier he becomes, until it finally kills him.” (2)

He also said (3): “Satan keeps company with the world; his plotting is tied to wealth, his enticement to passion, and his full control is found where desires are indulged.” (4)

Al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Khaythamah, reported that Jesus used to prepare food for his disciples, serve them himself, and say, “Do the same when you visit the villages.” (5)

It is likewise transmitted that a woman once said to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that nursed you.” He replied, “Blessed rather is the one who recites the Book of God and follows it.” He added, “Blessed (6) is he who weeps at the remembrance of his sin, guards his tongue, and finds sufficiency in his own home.” (7)

He further said, “Blessed is the eye that falls asleep without entertaining thoughts of disobedience and awakens without any sin.” (8)

Mālik ibn Dīnār narrated that Jesus and his companions passed by a decaying carcass. They exclaimed, “How foul its stench!” He said, “But look how white its teeth are,” in order to discourage them from backbiting. (9)

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded: al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated from Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī that Jesus son of Mary said, “O company of disciples, be content with the scantiness of this world so long as your religion is safe, just as the people of the world are content with the scantiness of religion so long as their worldly affairs are safe.”

Zakariyyā added that a poet expressed this well:

I see men content with the merest trace of faith,
Yet never willing to live a modest life;
So enrich yourself with faith and do without the kings’ domain,
As kings do without faith for the sake of their domain. (10)