15/471 – ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him) took hold of my shoulder and said, “Be in this world as though you were a stranger, or a traveler passing along his way.” Ibn ʿUmar would also say, “When evening comes, do not expect to see the morning; and when morning comes, do not expect to see the evening. Draw upon your health before illness strikes, and upon your life before death arrives.” Reported by al-Bukhārī.

The scholars explained this ḥadīth to mean: Do not incline toward the world or treat it as your homeland. Do not imagine you will remain in it long or lavish care upon it. Take from it only what a stranger takes while residing in a land that is not his own, and busy yourself only with what such a traveler would busy himself with, for he intends to return to his family. Allah alone grants success.

16/472 – Abū al-ʿAbbās Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī (may Allah be pleased with him) said: A man came to the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) and asked, “Messenger of Allah, guide me to a deed which, if I perform it, Allah will love me and people will love me.” He replied, “Renounce the world and Allah will love you, and renounce what people possess and people will love you.” A ḥasan (fair) ḥadīth, recorded by Ibn Mājah and others with sound chains; Ibn Mājah is the one who narrated it.

17/473 – al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) once spoke about the worldly comfort people had attained and declared, “I have seen the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace be upon him) spend the whole day writhing with hunger, unable to find even the poorest quality of dates to fill his stomach.” Reported by Muslim.

Al-daqal—spelled with an open dāl and a qāf—refers to inferior dates.