65 – Zayd ibn Akhzam told me; Muḥāḍir told us; al-Aʿmash, from Mujāhid, said: “There is not a single day that departs from the world without saying, ‘Praise be to Allah who has released me from it and will never send me back to it.’” ⦗43⦘
Maḥmūd ibn al-Ḥasan al-Warrāq said:
A youth is fond of a long sojourn in life,
though he is certain that sojourning ends in decay.
What looks like growth in the body is in truth a shortening of his span,
and not every stretch of life is an increase.
Whenever one day is folded up, that day has folded up a part of him;
and when evening spreads its cloak, the night folds away the rest.
Two ever-new companions—day and night—leave nothing intact,
and within the sum of all things there is no abiding.
Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān recited to me, quoting a man of Quraysh:
… Night and day take turns over ʿUmar …
… short … … … …
… wear them away, yet … … …