35 – Azhar b. Marwān al-Raqāshī narrated to us; he said: A venerable shaykh who used to sit in the circle of al-Muʿtamir b. Sulaymān related to me, saying: Shuʿayb b. Ṣāliḥ narrated to us; he said: Jesus son of Mary, peace be upon him, declared:

“Whenever the life of this world settles in a servant’s heart, that heart becomes entangled in three afflictions: a preoccupation whose fatigue never lets up, a poverty whose relief is never attained, and a hope whose limit is never reached.

The world is both a seeker and the sought. Whoever seeks the Hereafter will find the world pursuing him until he has drawn his full allotted provision from it; whereas whoever seeks the world will find the Hereafter pursuing him until death arrives and seizes him by the neck.”