515 – Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Asbahani narrated to me. He said: I heard Muhammad ibn al-Nuʿman ibn ʿAbd al-Salam recite:

If you were truly concerned about the Great Day,
this world would feel to you like a prison;
and you would never rest content in its life.
Do you not know, O frail one, that we
shall one day be repaid for what we have sent ahead?
If we were raised up and then interrogated
about our past deeds, no excuse would be accepted.
How momentous will be our words when we stand there!

Al-Husayn ibn ʿAbd Allah also recited to me:

If no admonisher rises from within my own limbs
to benefit me, then nothing else can bring me benefit.
I place my hopes in a world whose draughts, when milked,
prove to be but a thin film of poison that leads to death.
Whoever clutches at the world is like one
trying to grasp water that slips through the gaps of his fingers;
or like a satisfied dreamer who, in his sleep,
basks in the pleasure of confused, fleeting visions.
But once the night departs, his joy departs with it,
and the surging waves of calamity return upon him.