402 – Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related: Ibn al-Sammāk used to say, “Whoever tastes the sweetness of this world because his heart inclines to it, the Hereafter will make him drink its bitterness so that he may pull away from it.” Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān then recited to me: ⦗180⦘
[al-Baḥr al-Sarīʿ metre]

O world, O world, deceitful one—
be gone from me this day, O enchantress!
No pleasure is better than the pleasure
that is cast aside by one who could have grasped it.
O eye, how many tears have you beheld?
Take heed, if you would still keep watch for me.
There is no delight I have not already known;
only the delight of the Hereafter remains.
Praise be to Allah; my worldly life
has become, of itself, a stern reprover.
Blessed is the one whose firm resolve
is pure—within and without.
O soul, do your tears for Allah still flow for me,
and does your eye keep vigilant watch?
O soul, tomorrow’s hardship leaves a bitter aftertaste—
will you remain patient for it?
What value has the world’s pleasure
when my eye sees what it is destined to become?