500 – Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh narrated to us, Yūnus ibn Muḥammad narrated to us, al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated:

Layth wrote:

“From Layth ibn Abī Sulaym to Sulaymān ibn Ṭarḫān.

Peace be upon you. I praise before you Allah—there is no god but He, the Most High, the Most Great—and I testify that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger.

To proceed: I counsel you to fear Allah, for whatever a God-fearing person does, whether little or much, will benefit him. May Allah, by His mercy, make us and you among the God-fearing.

I am writing to inform you that we and those with us—our families and our brothers—remain, by Allah’s favor and well-being, as we have always been; to Him belongs all praise. Your letter reached me, and in it you mentioned matters that are not hidden from anyone of sound reason. There is no power except with Allah.

I am well aware that the messengers were only sent to tear down this worldly life and to build the life to come, and that people differ over this. Someone who met the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, told me that they used to say:

‘Whenever we embraced Islam, we turned our faces toward the Hereafter and left this world to the polytheists, whereas people today have turned to their worldly concerns and have abandoned the concerns of their Hereafter.’”