557 – Muḥammad ibn Idrīs narrated to me; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿIyāḍ narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Hammām narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil narrated to us, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, who said: “I read in the Book of Isaiah that it was said to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘O Jonah, when a scholar begins to love the life of this world, I strip the sweetness of My intimate converse from his heart.’”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh then recited to me the following lines:

Take heed, people of the world! Do you not see
that destiny is driving them toward a fixed appointed time?
I have noticed that whenever the world rears a child for itself
and leaves him wanting for nothing, it slips upon him what he most dreads.
When the days seem clear and tranquil, be wary of them,
for no clarity remains but that its ending will soon grow turbid.