1094 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; my father narrated to us; ʿAffan narrated to us; Hammad ibn Salamah narrated to us; Abu Jaʿfar al-Khatmi informed us, from Muhammad ibn Kaʿb al-Qurazi, who said:

“ʿAbd Allah ibn Yazid al-Khatmi was invited to a meal. When he arrived and saw that the house was draped with luxurious hangings, he sat outside and began to weep. They asked, ‘What makes you weep?’

He replied, ‘Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would accompany an army as far as ʿAqabah al-Wadaʿ, he would say, “I place your religion, your trustworthiness, and the conclusions of your deeds in Allah’s safekeeping.”

Then, one day, he saw a man who had patched his cloak with a scrap of fur. He faced the direction of sunrise and, spreading out both palms as Hammad demonstrated, said, “The world has surged upon you, the world has surged upon you!”—meaning, it advanced until we thought it was about to fall upon us. He then said, “Today you are in a better state; but what will your condition be when a platter is set before you in the morning and another in the evening, when one of you goes out in one suit and returns in another, and when your houses are screened just as the Kaʿbah is screened?”

ʿAbd Allah concluded, “Shall I not weep, when I have lived to see you covering your houses as the Kaʿbah is covered?””