521 – Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to me:

People once asked one of the scholars, “What have you found to be the surest protection against want?” He answered, “Renunciation (zuhd).” They said, “And what is renunciation?” He replied, “Knowledge—then the ability to distinguish between this world and the Hereafter—then seeking what is lofty by means of what is lowly.” They asked, “Which of these is the most effective?” He said, “To leave off preoccupying the mind with anything of this world.”

Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān then recited to me, saying that Ibrāhīm ibn Dāwūd had recited:

—metre: al-khafīf—
The two-faced backbiter will never
stand honored before the Sovereign;
Nor will the one who chases the world’s excess
and its pleasures ever become truly wise. ⦗224⦘
The ascetics gained every delight
when they allowed their souls only what would suffice;
The covetous man was taken as a slave within it,
and nothing he amasses there can enrich him.
It is a dwelling that only deepens the attachment
of him who leans toward it, and lowly is the one who devotes himself to it.