He took hold of my shoulders and said, “Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a passer-by.” Glory be to Allah! The Almighty endowed His Prophet with concise, comprehensive speech. These two brief expressions could serve as a guiding beacon for a person throughout his life: “Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a passer-by.”

The passer-by is someone who walks through a village and then moves on, while the stranger stays there only until the time comes for him to depart—two days, three, ten, perhaps a month. Neither of them—the passer-by nor the stranger—treats the village he is in as a homeland, a permanent residence, or a final abode.

Thus the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—says: in this world be like such a man, either a stranger or a passer-by. Neither one settles; his whole aim is to reach his family and his homeland. If a person were to deal with himself in this world in that manner, he would always be preparing for the Hereafter, desiring nothing but it, seeing before his eyes nothing but it, until he travels toward it in a way that brings him to the goal he seeks. We ask Allah to grant us and you all that is good and wholesome.

Ibn ʿUmar used to say: “When you reach the morning, do not expect to see the evening; and when you reach the evening, do not expect to see the morning.” The meaning is: do not presume that if you wake up in the morning you will live until nightfall, or that if you reach nightfall you will live until dawn. How many a person has arisen but never seen the evening! How many have lived to the evening but never witnessed the morning! How many have put on a garment only for the washer to remove it from their corpse! How many have left their family while their lunch or dinner was being prepared, yet they never ate it! How many have lain down to sleep and never risen from their bed! The important thing is that a person should not indulge in lengthy hopes; rather, he should be