244 – Hamzah related to me; ʿAbdān narrated; ʿAbdullāh narrated; some of the people of Basra reported that Muṭarrif ibn al-Shikhkhīr lost his wife—or another member of his household. A number of his brothers said, “Come, let us visit our brother Muṭarrif so that Satan does not find him alone and seize some advantage over him.” They went to him, and he came out to them ⦗119⦘ with his hair oiled, looking well-kept and presentable. They said, “We were afraid of something, but we hope Allah has protected you from it,” and they told him what they had said. Muṭarrif replied, “If the whole world were mine and He took it from me in exchange for a single sip on the Day of Resurrection, I would willingly ransom myself with it.”

Ahmad ibn Mūsā al-Thaqafī recited to me:
Leave the world to the one enamoured of it,
even when it flaunts its loveliness;
Take from it only the least you need,
even should it spread before you all its treasures.
For this abode is one of decay—
death will reach even those who dwell in safety.
The days have already turned for you
its outer face and its hidden core.
Enough of the describers’ descriptions—
just look at it yourself:
Does not what is new within it grow old,
and does not death lay waste to its inhabitants?

Abū Naṣr al-Madīnī recited to me:
This abode was once possessed before us
by a company who perished and left it to us.
We have held it as they once held it,
and others after us will hold it in their turn.
Then it will consume them, and after them itself will fade—
the world is no lasting homeland for any living soul.
How strange this house is, how often it deceives us!
Alas—alas! What regret, what sorrow.