34 – Ahmad ibn Ibrahim narrated to us; Mansur ibn Bashir narrated to me, from Shuʿayb ibn Ṣafwān, from ʿĪsā, that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz wrote to a man: ⦗29⦘

“To proceed: I counsel you to fear Allah and to hasten, as far as you are able, to forward from your wealth—and from whatever Allah has provided you—to the abode where you will abide forever. By Allah, it is as though you have already tasted death and undergone what follows it, because of the relentless alternation of night and day; for the two of them are swift in folding up the appointed term and shortening life, and they stand ready to do to those who remain exactly what they have done to those who have passed away. Therefore we ask Allah to forgive the evil of our deeds, and we seek refuge with Allah from His wrath befalling us on account of the very admonitions in which we fall short.”