273 – Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Muzanī narrated to us, from ʿAmmār ibn Saʿīd, who said:

The Messiah—peace be upon him—passed by a village whose people lay dead in the courtyards and along the roads. He said to his disciples, ⦗133⦘ “Company of disciples, these people died under divine wrath; had they died under any other circumstance they would have buried one another.” They said, “Spirit of Allah, how we wish we knew their story.” He therefore asked his Lord, and Allah, exalted is He, revealed to him: “When night falls, call out to them and they will answer you.”

When night came he climbed a rise and called, “People of the village!” A voice replied, “At your service, Spirit of Allah.” He asked, “What has happened to you? What is your story?” They said, “We ended the evening in well-being and awoke in the abyss.” He asked, “How did that come about?” They replied, “Because of our love for the world and our obedience to the people of sin.” He asked, “And what was the nature of your love for the world?” They said, “Like an infant’s love for its mother: when she draws near we rejoice, and when she turns away we grieve and weep.” He asked, “Why have your companions not answered me?” They said, “Their mouths are muzzled with bridles of fire, held by stern, mighty angels.” He asked, “How, then, did you manage to answer me among them?” They said, “I was among them but not of them; when the punishment came it struck me along with them. I am now suspended on the brink of Hell, unsure whether I shall escape from it or be hurled headlong into it.”

The Messiah then said to the disciples, “Eating barley bread with coarse salt, wearing sackcloth, and sleeping on refuse heaps is abundant ease so long as one is safe in this world and in the Hereafter.”

One of our companions recited to me:
[Baḥr al-Kāmil]
Desire for maidens and for wine was checked
By the gleam of grey hairs and Islam’s admonisher.
Though trials abound, I see that still
Neither my folly nor my passion will awake.
Today I have curtailed my idle pursuits and found repose
From the scheming of tale-bearers and the tongues of blamers. ⦗134⦘
I know for certain I must—sooner or later—drink
The cup of death from which there is no escape.
Where are the pampered kings, and where the man
Before whom other men once stood on foot in awe?
Where are those who urged their chargers through the mire,
Gaunt-bellied steeds that seemed forever tireless?
Their tattered banners once cast shade upon them
Amid every clash of interlaced spear-shafts and helmets.
And on the Day of Assembly the cup of wine would tilt toward them,
Passed half-filled by attentive cup-bearers.
But time took vengeance on their nobles—
Who can defy the sovereignty of the days?
Fortunes lodge their arrows in hidden nests,
While on the swelling sea the mariner’s son still drifts.
Many a venture has enriched a man,
While my brother in wealth awoke with us to poverty.
So let the man of reason seek solace for the abode
That is, for one possessed of reason, no place of lasting stay.