478 – al-Husayn ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman related to me, from some of his teachers, who said: al-Hasan declared, “This world is nothing but gloom and anxiety; if one of you should glimpse a moment of joy in it, that is pure gain.”

Ahmad ibn Musa al-Basri then recited to me these lines (basīṭ metre):
I complain to Allah of a soul that will not suit me;
it seeks my ruin, yet I leave no means unused to save it.
It never ceases to whisper sin to me—sin that spells destruction—
but I refuse to accede to it.
It has grown weary and I have wearied it; it will not agree with me,
though at times it overcomes me and I turn it back.
I scare it with Allah’s threat as best I can,
yet unfailing hopes continue to beguile and distract it.
Say rather to the dweller in a house he cannot long inhabit:
he toils for it as though he would live there forever.
Have you ever seen anyone kept safe from its calamities,
or heard of a living soul that abides in it forever?
Do you fear the countless sins that lie behind you?
Have you forgotten their number, while Allah keeps count?
How many an evil deed you flagrantly committed and displayed,
while Allah concealed it!
Every day you witness lessons—
acts of grace from Allah to warn and alert you. ⦗204⦘
Do you not see how death keeps on snatching,
from every direction, a soul and enclosing it?
It shatters a hope that had been cherished,
and the camp hears the herald announcing and the mourners weeping.
They are laid in the soil where their bones decay
after their brightness—then Allah will revive them.
What they amassed and stored of this world
passes to their relatives, the nearest seizing it.
So pave the way for your soul while its appointed days remain,
and seek Allah’s forgiveness for what you have previously done therein.