2/458 – Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat upon the pulpit while we sat around him and said, “Among the things I fear for you most after I am gone is that the bloom and adornment of this world will be opened up for you.” Agreed upon.

3/459 – He (may Allah be pleased with him) also reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “This world is sweet and verdant, and Allah will make you successors in it to see how you behave. So beware of the world, and beware of women.” Narrated by Muslim.

[Explanation]
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) cites these hadiths in the chapter on renunciation of the world and encouragement toward it. Before this he mentioned several Quranic verses, all of which show that this life is nothing compared to the Hereafter and that it is merely a passageway and a field in which one sows for the life to come.

Someone might ask: People speak of waraʿ and they speak of zuhd—which of the two is higher, and what is the difference between them?

The answer is that zuhd is higher than waraʿ. The difference is that waraʿ means leaving what is harmful, whereas zuhd means leaving what does not benefit. Thus, things fall into three categories: what harms in the Hereafter, what benefits, and what neither harms nor benefits.

Waraʿ is for a person to give up that which will harm him in the Hereafter, meaning that he leaves the unlawful.

Zuhd is to abandon what brings no benefit in the Hereafter; whatever does not benefit him, he leaves it entirely.