474 – Salamah ibn Shabib narrated to me, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar al-Wasiti, from Abu al-Rabiʿ al-Aʿraj, from Sharik, from Jabir, who said: Muhammad ibn ʿAli said:

“O Jabir, I am truly saddened, my heart is indeed preoccupied.”
I asked, “What is it that grieves you and distracts your heart?”
He replied, “O Jabir, when the clear, unalloyed religion of Allah takes hold of a person’s heart, it turns him away from everything else.

O Jabir, what is this world—what could it ever amount to? It is no more than a mount you ride, a garment you wear, or a woman you marry.
O Jabir, the believers never felt at ease in this world out of hope for staying in it, nor did they feel secure from the coming of the Hereafter. The trials they heard with their ears did not deafen them from remembering Allah, and the adornments they saw with their eyes did not blind them to Allah’s light; thus they won the reward reserved for the righteous.

People of mindfulness of Allah are the least burdensome folk in this world and the most helpful to you: if you forget, they remind you; if you remember, they support you. They speak Allah’s truth and stand firm by Allah’s command, Glorified is He. They severed their own loves for the sake of their Lord’s love, and with their hearts they fixed their gaze upon Allah and His love. They estranged themselves from the world in order to obey their Sovereign, knowing that their condition is under His constant watch.

So treat this world like a house in which you lodge for a while and then move on, or like a sum of wealth you gained in a dream—when you wake up you find nothing of it. Guard, then, whatever portion of Allah’s religion and wisdom He has entrusted to your care.”