50 – Abu Jaʿfar narrated to me, from Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Adamī. He said: Maʿn ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Aswad told me, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, that he wrote to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz:

To proceed: The present world is a way-station, not a home. Adam—peace be upon him—was only sent down to it as a punishment. So beware of it, Commander of the Believers; the real provision one gains from it is to leave it behind, and the true wealth one acquires from it is its very poverty. At every moment it claims a victim; it humbles those who honor it and impoverishes those who hoard it. It is like a poison that someone ignorant of it might eat—yet it is his destruction.

Therefore, in this life be like a physician treating his own wound: he restricts himself for a short time, fearing a long-lasting harm, and endures harsh medicines lest the ailment linger. Beware, then, of this deceitful, treacherous, duplicitous abode—adorned with its tricks, alluring through its delusions, sweetened by its promises, showing itself off to its suitors. It is now like a newly unveiled bride: all eyes are fixed upon her, hearts are ⦗41⦘ enthralled by her, and souls are passionate for her—yet she slays every one of her spouses.

Those who remain take no lesson from those who have gone; the last are not deterred by the first; and even the one whom Allah has informed about her does not take heed. A lover of this world may obtain from her what he sought, whereupon he is deceived, rebels, and forgets the return. She distracts his very mind until his foot slips from her; then his regret swells, his grief multiplies, and the agonies of death close in on him with their pain, while the pangs of loss choke him. He departs in sorrow, having won none of what he pursued from her, nor granted his soul any rest from toil. He sets out with no provision and arrives at a place with no bedding.

Beware of her, Commander of the Believers, and let the time when you are most pleased with her be the time when you are most on guard against her. For the possessor of this world, whenever he settles into some joy, she dispatches him to what he hates. What delights today will betray tomorrow, and what benefits now will harm later. Ease in her is bound to affliction, and any permanence in her leads to extinction. Her happiness is mixed with grief; what has passed never returns, and what is coming is unknown. Her promises are lies, her hopes are vain, her clarity is turbid, and her life is bitter. The child of Adam lives in her on the brink of danger: if he is heedless, then in blessing he is still at risk, and in trial he must remain alert.

Had the Creator not spoken about her at all nor given any parable, the nature of the world itself would have awakened the sleeper and roused the heedless. How much more so now that Allah has issued a warning concerning her and placed within her a preacher! With Him she has no worth or weight; He has never so much as looked at her since He created her.

Indeed, the keys and treasures of the earth were offered to your Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and accepting them would not have diminished, ⦗42⦘ in Allah’s sight, even the wing of a mosquito. Yet he refused, disliking to oppose Allah’s command, to love what his Creator despised, or to raise what his Sovereign had lowered. Thus Allah withheld her from the righteous by way of choice and spread her out before His enemies as a snare. The deluded one who possesses her imagines that he has been honored, forgetting what Allah Most High did with Muḥammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—when he bound a stone to his stomach.

A report has reached us from him, from his Lord—majestic and mighty—that He said to Moses, peace be upon him: “When you see wealth approaching, say: ‘A sin whose punishment has been hastened.’ And when you see poverty approaching, say: ‘Welcome, emblem of the righteous.’”

If you wish, follow the example of the bearer of the Spirit and the Word, Jesus son of Mary—peace be upon him—for he used to say: “My relish is hunger; my emblem is fear; my clothing is wool; my place of prayer in winter is where the sun rises; my lamp is the moon; my mount is my two feet; my food and fruit are what the earth brings forth. I retire at night owning nothing and rise in the morning owning nothing, and on the face of the earth no one is richer ⦗43⦘ than I.”