509 – Ṣāliḥ ibn Mālik narrated to me; Abū ʿUbaydah al-Nājī transmitted to us; he said: al-Ḥasan said:

“There are two seekers, each in pursuit. The one who seeks the Hereafter will inevitably attain what he seeks—none of it will escape him. As for the one who seeks the world, he may perchance secure a little of it, yet what eludes him is far greater. When the world was opened up to its people, by Allah, they lunged at it with the most rabid greed: some even set upon others with the sword, and some went so far as to violate one another’s sanctity. Alas, what corruption this is—how vast it has become!”