453 – Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Abū Muḥammad the cloth-merchant narrated to me, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Yamānī, from his father, that al-Ḥasan wrote to Makḥūl—he held him in high regard and loved him—and in his letter he said:

“Know, my brother—may Allah have mercy on us and on you, Abū ʿAbd Allāh—that today you are nearer to death than you were on the very day your passing was first foretold. Night and day have never ceased to speed by, shrinking lifespans and drawing appointed terms ever closer. Hayhāt, hayhāt! Night and day accompanied Noah, ʿĀd and Thamūd, and many generations in between. Morning came, and they had already stood before their Lord and faced the record of their deeds, while night and day remained fresh and new, unwearied by all they had traversed, ready for those who remain just as they were for those who have gone. As for you ⦗195⦘, you are the likeness of your brothers, your peers and those akin to you; your case is that of a body whose strength has been stripped away until nothing is left but the mere flicker of its life. We seek refuge with Allah from incurring His wrath upon us for the very admonitions we deliver yet fall short of fulfilling.”