Someone said to him, “Shall we not lay down a soft mattress for you—something you could tread upon and sleep on?” He answered, “What have I to do with this world? My situation in it is no more than that of a traveler who rested for a moment in the shade of a tree, then went on his way and left it behind.”

Thus the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, had no worldly preoccupation. No money stayed in his possession; he spent everything in the cause of Allah and lived the life of the poor.

The compiler then cites several reports stating that the poor will enter Paradise before the wealthy, and that they will constitute the majority of its people. The reason is that the poor possess nothing that might lead them to tyranny; they remain humble and submissive. If you reflect on the Qur’anic verses, you will find that it is the elite—the dignitaries and the rich—who deny the messengers, whereas the downtrodden are the ones who follow them. For that reason the poor will be the most numerous in Paradise and will precede the wealthy in entering it, though the ḥadiths differ over the exact interval. The differences can be harmonized by noting that travelers do not all cover the same distance at the same pace: one person can traverse in ten days what takes another twenty, for example.

Next the author mentions the Prophet’s judgment on a famous line of the poet Labid. He said, “The truest word ever spoken by a poet is the line of Labid:
‘Behold, everything apart from Allah is futile.’

Everything other than Allah is futile, wasted, and brings no benefit. Only that which is done for Allah benefits its doer and endures for him. Worldly life itself is fleeting and vain, as the Exalted says: “Know that the life of this world is but play and amusement, adornment, boasting among yourselves, and rivalry in wealth and children” (al-Ḥadīd 57:20)—except for whatever of it is remembrance of Allah and obedience to Him, for that alone is true and good.