170 – My father related to me and said: “Rawḥ ibn ʿUbādah informed us; he said: Saʿīd ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Jubayrī narrated to us from Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Muzanī that a man told him he had accompanied Kaʿb al-Aḥbār for eleven years. ⦗112⦘ When Kaʿb was on his death-bed, the man said to him, ‘I have accompanied you for eleven years, wishing to ask you something but feeling too in awe to do so.’ Kaʿb replied, ‘Ask whatever you like.’

The man said, ‘Tell me: why is it that when the son of Adam rises after relieving himself, he turns back and looks at what he has left?’

Kaʿb answered, ‘By the One in Whose hand Kaʿb’s soul rests, you have asked me about a matter that Allah revealed in the Torah to Moses—may Allah’s blessings be upon him. And may He send blessings upon Muhammad, upon all of Allah’s prophets and messengers, His angels, and His righteous servants. Look, then, at the worldly life you keep gathering…’