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

Mohammed bin Salih narrated to me from (…) Abu al-Abbas ad-Dainouri that Mohammed bin al-Hanafiyya related: Al-Ahnaf bin Qays invited Amir ul-Mu’minin (a) in Basra after the Battle of the Camel. When Amir ul-Mu’minin responded to the invitation, he asked al-Ahnaf to invite his companions, too. Al-Ahnaf did. After that, some people who were very reverent as if they were worn out skins came in. “O Amir ul-Mu’minin, ” asked al-Ahnaf, “What happened to those people? Was it because scarce of food or was it because of the terror of war? ” Amir ul-Mu’minin (a) answered: No, Ahnaf. It was not. Allah, Glorified is He, loved some people who worshipped Him devotedly in this world as if they were under blockade, because He has known their dread of the Day of Resurrection before they have witnessed it. They therefore exerted all their possible efforts in this regard. If they remember that morning when the creatures will be brought before their Lord, they imagine a line comes out of Hell to gather all the creatures before their Lord and imagine a record that is opened before the Witnesses and uncovers all of their sins. Thus, their souls are about to run flowingly, their hearts are about to fly with wings of fear highly, and their minds are as if they are boiling in a cauldron. They have longed (for meeting Allah) like the longing of the distracted in the murk and they have been distressed because of the fear of that to which they dedicated themselves. Thus, they have become weak-bodied, brokenhearted, gloomy-faced, dry-lipped, and atrophied-stomached. You see them as if they are drunk; they talk in the loneliness of nights and are submissive like worn out skins. They have offered their acts to Allah so sincerely in secret and in public. Their hearts have never felt secure because of their fear of Allah. They have behaved as if they were the guards of the domes of their tributes. Were you to see them at nights-when the eyes are asleep, the sounds are quiet, and the movements of the birds in their nests are calm-the threatening horror of the Day of Resurrection has deterred them from sleeping, just as Allah says: “Did the people of the towns think themselves secure from Our wrath that could strike them at ni