292 – Al-Hasan ibn ʿAli narrated to me. He reported from ʿAbāʾah ibn Kulayb, from Muhammad ibn al-Nadr al-Ḥārithī, who said: Muhammad ibn Kaʿb used to say:

“This world is a dwelling doomed to vanish, a mere way-station for whatever provision one takes along. The truly blessed have turned away from it, while it is torn from the grasp of the wretched. Thus the most miserable people in it are those who covet it the most, and those who are most detached from it ⦗141⦘ are the happiest of people in it. It lures into error whoever obeys it, destroys whoever pursues it, and betrays whoever surrenders to it. Its so-called knowledge is ignorance; its wealth is poverty; its increase is diminution; and its days alternate in shifting turns.”