Whoever reflects on the consequences of this world,
He took precautions,
And whoever was certain that the road was long,
Get ready to travel.
How astonishing is your affair, O you who are certain of a matter and then forget it,
And a harm in the present situation becomes real, then it overtakes him.
And you fear the people,
Allah is more worthy of your fear!
Your self overcomes you regarding what you suppose,
And do not let it overpower you regarding what you are certain of!
Most astonishing of wonders:
Your delight in your conceit,
And your heedless preoccupation in your diversion from what has been stored for you!
You become overconfident because of your health.
And you forget how near sickness is,
And you rejoice in your well-being, heedless of the approaching pain!
Indeed, I see you making someone else's downfall your own.
And he revealed a resting place other than you before death revealed your resting place.
And indeed, the attainment of your pleasures has occupied you from the remembrance of the ruin of your self.
It is as if you had not heard news of those who have passed.
And you did not see in those who remain what time will do.
So if you do not know, then those are their homes.
The sweep of the wind wiped it away after them, and the grave.
How many a homeowner have I seen who never moved into his house before he died!
How often have I seen the governor of a palace whose ally became his enemy when he was dismissed!
O you who experience this every moment,
And his action is that of someone who neither understands nor knows!
And how can the eye sleep while it is steady and watchful?
And she did not know from which of the places it would come down.
Whoever approaches temptation,
Safety became distant from him,
And whoever claimed to be patient,
And each one to his own self.
Many a glance was not reciprocated.
And the things most deserving of restraint and coercion:
The tongue and the eye.
So beware, beware of being deceived by your resolve to abandon desire.
As the temptation approaches,
Indeed, desire is treachery!
How many a brave man in the ranks of battle was treacherously slain.
Then something he had not expected came to him from one who refused to look at him.
And remember Hamza together with Wahshi.
So look carefully and do not sneer.
Every flash of lightning may at times contain thunderbolts.
Lower your gaze and you will rest.
Infatuation can clothe a person in a garment of abasement and shame.
So the youth's trial is the soul's consent.
And the beginning of desire is the eye's ambition.
The greatest punishment is that the one being punished does not feel the punishment.
Even more severe than that is taking pleasure in what is a punishment.
Like rejoicing over illicit money,
and being entrenched in sins,
And such is his state: he does not attain success through obedience.
And indeed I reflected on the conditions of most of the scholars and the ascetics.
So I saw them in punishments that they did not feel.
And most of it is from the part of their pursuit of leadership,
So the scholar among them becomes angry if his mistake is pointed out to him.
And the preacher puts on a show in his preaching.
And the ascetic is either a hypocrite or a show-off.
The first of their punishments is that they turn away from the truth, becoming preoccupied with people.
And among their hidden punishments is the deprivation of the sweetness of private supplication.
And the delight of worship,
Except for believing men,
and believing women,
God preserves the earth through them.
Their inward is like their outward appearance.
Rather, more clearly,
And their innermost thoughts are like their public declarations.
Rather, more delightful.
And their ambitions are at the Pleiades.
Rather, higher.
If they knew, they denied it.
And if honor was shown to them, they denied it.
So the people are in their excesses,
And a delusion is in the remote parts of their plains,
The corners of the earth love them.
And the angels of heaven rejoice for them,
We ask God for success in following them.
And that He make us among their followers.
