461 – ʿUmar ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ḥusayn told us, saying: Saʿīd ibn Muslim al-Ḥanafī told me, saying: my father, Muslim ibn Saʿīd, told me:

“We were sitting in one of the gatherings of Banū Ḥanīfah when a Bedouin passed by us, looking as though sorrow weighed on him. He greeted us and walked on, then turned back and said:

‘People of Arabia, I am tired—tired of the endless round of nights and days and how they keep turning over me. Is there anything that can drive away this weariness, or draw out from me some of what I feel?’

He went off a short distance, then returned and said:

‘Alas for hearts that are free of sin! Alas for limbs that rush to obey the All-Merciful! Such people never grow weary of this world, for they use it as a means to draw nearer to their Lord; nor do they loathe death when it comes to them, for in meeting their Master they reap blessing. In either state they are well-off: if they reach the Hereafter, they arrive bearing the devotion they have already sent ahead; and if their span on earth is prolonged, they go on preparing provisions for the day of departure.’

The narrator continues: “I have never heard an admonition that sank more deeply into hearts than this one. Whenever I recall it, the world and all it contains becomes insignificant to me.”

Sulaymān ibn Yazīd al-ʿAdawī said—(meter: baḥr al-ṭawīl):

Night and day—the two ever-new—urge all that is new toward decay; how many a fresh thing have they ruined and swept away.
How much newness and brightness have they worn thin, and how many a long life have they consumed and carried off.
How many delights and comforts have they clouded, how often have they torn a companion from a companion and left him alone.
How many a tearful lesson have they brought after joy, with weeping and wailing whose burning pain will not be dispelled.
How many a novelty have they reduced to tatters, how many a youth have they rendered decrepit.
How many a mighty, haughty sovereign have the two ages assailed until he grew dull and broken.
How many a thriving abode now stands empty, overtaken by time’s ruin after once being proudly built.
How many a clan have the two eras split apart; wondrous indeed what they conceal and what they reveal.
How many a pampered man of august presence have they driven to death’s pool and made him drink its draught.
He ended up abased, his cheek in the dust, parted from a sovereignty deemed inviolable and from his high estate.
How many a soul at ease have they alarmed with sudden calamity, some amazing affair they brought near, then took far away.
They wheel about, time after time, bearing admonitions within themselves, yet none benefits save the rightly guided, soundly directed.
Every person will one day be repaid for what he has done; each is safeguarded only by the provisions he has laid in store.