Devout worship and fear of the Day of Resurrection — Hadith 1

ght during their sleep? (: )” So, they wake up panic-stricken, hurried to their prayers crying-they, sometimes, weep and sometimes praise Allah. In their places of worship, they weep and resound. At gloomy nights, they weep. Were you, O Ahnaf, to see them at nights standing on their limbs with the backs bent. They recite the parts of the Quran in their prayers. Their wailing, lamenting, and sighing are very deep. If they sigh, you think as if the fire (of Hell) has taken them from the throat. If they wail, you think as if the chains are fastened on their necks. If you look at them in days, you see the people who “walk gently on the earth, ” say “good wording to people, ” “when addressed by the ignorant ones, their only response is, ‘Peace be with you, ’” and “when they come across something impious, they pass it by nobly. ” They have prevented their feet from inspecting the people’s defects, stopped their tongues from mentioning the people’s honors, checked their hearings from interfering in the others’ reference to the wrong, feasted their eyes on turning them away from (looking at) the acts of disobedience to Allah, and directed towards the Abode of Peace-he whoever enters there will be saved from doubt and griefs. It seems, O Ahnaf, that you have been engaged by looking at the face of that one which afflicts you with (various sorts of) misfortunes in the very moment you enjoy looking at its flourishing face, and you have been engaged by looking at the drawings of the portico of that lodging, as well as its hanged curtains, while wind and hot weather are charged with its fruits. Nevertheless, that lodging, which is definitely not your permanent abode, has distracted you from (working for) the Final Abode that Allah created from a white pearl, holed rivers, planted trees, cast shadows of its ripen fruits over it, and filled in it with the young women. Then, He will house (permanently) His disciples and obedient people there. Were you, O Ahnaf, to see them when they will come to their Lord the Glorified. When their mares are stricken, their riding she-camels will make such a nice sound that no one has ever heard its like. A cloud that rains musk and saffron will overshadow them. Their mares wil