267 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī narrated to us; he said: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath narrated to us; he said: I heard al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ say:

A man from among the disciples once stood before Jesus (peace be upon him) and said, “O Spirit of God, speak to me about the band of ascetics whom Jonah son of Amittai (peace be upon him) met. Perhaps your account will rouse the people of this world from the slumber of heedlessness and draw them out of the darkness of ignorance. How often a single word has revived its hearer after death, raised him after lowliness, steadied him after a fall, enriched him after poverty, mended him after being broken, and awakened him after drowsiness. It pierces the heart, causing fountains of life to gush within, valleys of wisdom to flow, and the seedlings of mercy to sprout—provided all of this coincides with the decree of Allah, Exalted is He.”

Mahmūd al-Warrāq then recited to me these verses (Basīṭ metre):
How plainly death exposes the world and its finery—
indeed, how plainly the world exposes its own people! ⦗129⦘
Blame not the world; its apology is manifest to you
in the very faults it parades before your eyes.
No blemish of it remains hidden from those who dwell in it;
it has laid every defect bare in what they experience.
Relentlessly it consumes sons and kinsfolk alike,
yet it yields to anyone who does not contend with it.
Neither the slaying of those it has slain
nor the enmity it meets with does anything but deepen people’s craving for it.