Hadith 109

(The book) ‘Al Majaalis’ of Al Mufeed – From Al Marzubani, from Ahmad Bin Muhammad Al Makky, from Abu Al Ayna’a, from Muhammad Bin Al Hakam, from Lut Bin Yahya, from Al Haris Bin Ka’ab, from Mujahid who said, ‘Amir Al-Momineen Ali-asws Bin Abu Talib-asws said: ‘Be ascetics in this world which no one before you has enjoyed with it nor will it remain for anyone from after you! Your way in it is a way of the past ones. It has announced and proclaimed with termination, and well-known denial. It informs its people with the annihilation and its dwellers with the death, and it has turned bitter from it what used to be sweet, and filthy from it what used to be clean. So there does not remain from it except remnants like remnants of medicine, or a gulp like (the last) gulp of the container. If the thirsty were to tear it (waterskin), they will not be quenched with it. Proclaim with the departure from this house the decline is pre-Determined upon its people, the preventer of the life from its people, and ones humiliating themselves with the death. There is no one living greedy regarding the living, nor any soul except it yields to the deaths. So do not let the wishes make you sick, nor the extended (long hopes) be prolonged upon you, nor be deceived from it with the hopes. If only you would grunt like the grunting of the camels, and supplicate like the yearning of the pigeons, and were audacious of audacity of the celibate Monks, and go out to Allah-azwj the Exalted from the wealth and the children, seeking the nearness to Him-azwj regarding the lofty ranks in His-azwj Presence, or Forgiveness of the evil deeds His-azwj registers have enumerated, and His-azwj Angels have preserved, it would be little regarding what I-asws am hoping for you all from His-azwj Rewards, and I-asws am fearing upon you of His-azwj Punishment. May Allah-azwj Make us and you all to be from the penitent worshippers’’. [130]