Hadith 40 of Nawawi : « Be in this world like a stranger or a passing traveler. »

Ibn Majah reports it, not mentioning Ibn Umar's word. Imam Ahmad and an-Nasa'i report from al-Awza'i's hadith, from Abda ibn Abi Lubaba, from Ibn Umar, who said: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) seized part of my body and said: "Worship Allah as if you see Him; and be in the world as a stranger, or a passer-by." Abda ibn Abi Lubaba met Ibn Umar: his hearing of him diverged.

This hadith, a root of shortening hope

This hadith is a root of shortening hope in the world, that the believer should not take the world homeland and dwelling, resting therein: rather he should be in it as on the wing of travel, preparing his baggage for departure. The prophets' and their followers' counsels agreed on that.

[The prophets' and followers' counsels:] The Most High says, quoting Pharaoh's family's believer:

"O my people! This worldly life is but passing enjoyment: and the Hereafter is the abiding home."

Ghafir, 39

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "What have I with the world? My example and the world's are like a rider who rested in a tree's shade, then departed leaving it." Of the Messiah's counsels, upon him peace, to his companions: "Cross her, and dwell her not." He is reported saying: "Who is it that builds a home upon the sea's wave? That is the world: take her not as dwelling." A man entered upon Abu Dharr, turning his gaze in his house, and said: O Abu Dharr! Where is your baggage? He said: we have a house we head toward. He said: you need baggage while here. He said: the house's holder leaves us not dwell therein. They entered upon one of the righteous, turning their gaze in his house, saying: we see your house a traveling man's house. He said: traveling? No: but I am expelled, expelled. Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "The world departed, turning her back; the Hereafter departed, coming: each has sons: be of the Hereafter's sons, and be not of the world's sons: for today is deed without reckoning, and tomorrow reckoning without deed!" Some sages said: "I marvel at him whom the world flees and toward whom the Hereafter comes: busying the departing, turning from the arriving?!" Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz said in his sermon: "The world is not your dwelling home: Allah wrote upon her annihilation, and wrote upon her people moving: how many an adorned dweller vanishes in little! How many a resident delighted in little moves! Do, may Allah have mercy on you, the best journeying with the best of your displacement, and provision: the best provision is piety."

The believer's duty toward the world

The world being neither dwelling home nor homeland for the believer: the believer must be in her in one of two states: like a stranger dwelling in a strange land, concerned provisioning for return to his homeland; or like a traveler not dwelling at all: his night and day walking to the dwelling land.

The Messenger's counsel to Ibn Umar

Hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) counselled Ibn Umar to be in the world in one of these two states.

The first state

The first: the believer sees himself a stranger in the world, imagining dwelling in a foreign land: his heart not attached to the foreign land: rather his heart attached to his homeland he returns to: he dwells in the world only maintaining his baggage for returning to his homeland.

Of the predecessors' reports

Al-Fudayl ibn Iyad said: "The believer in the world is concerned and grieved: his concern his baggage's maintenance. Whoever is so in the world has no energy but provisioning what benefits him returning to his homeland: he competes not the country's people, being a stranger among them, in their might, nor grieves their lowliness." Al-Hasan said: "The believer in the world is like the stranger: grieves not her lowliness, nor competes her might: he has his affair, people theirs!!" When Allah created Adam, upon him peace, he and his wife were made to dwell in Paradise, then descended from it, promised return, and their offspring. The believer ever yearns his first homeland: love of homeland is of faith. As said: "How many a home for the man the youth befriended... his yearning ever for the first home." And of some of our elders: "Hail the gardens of Adn: they are... your first homes, and there the camp! But we are the enemy's captives: is it seen... we return to our homelands and submit? They claim the stranger, when far... his homelands scattered: he is smitten: and what estrangement above our estrangement whose... enemies arbitrate among us?!" Ata as-Sulaymi said in his supplication: "O Allah! Have mercy on my estrangement in the world, have mercy on my solitude in the grave, and have mercy on my standing tomorrow before You."

The world's parable

Al-Hasan said: it reached me that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to his companions: "My example, yours, and the world's: a people traveling a white desert: when they knew not how far they traveled nor what remained, provisions ran out, backs laden: they remained mid-desert without provision or load: they were certain of perishing. While so, a man came out to them in a garment, water dripping from his head. They said: this is one recently of the countryside: how came this to him but by nearness? When he reached them he said: what do you seek? They said: what you see. He said: were I to guide you to abundant water and green gardens, what would you do? They said: we will oppose you in nothing. He said: your covenants and oaths by Allah! They gave him their covenants and oaths by Allah opposing him in nothing. He led them to water and green gardens, and said: they stayed as long as Allah willed, then said: O you! Departure. They said: to where? He said: to water not like your water, and gardens not like your gardens. Most of the people, being the majority, said: by Allah, we found not this until we deemed we would never find it: and what have we with a living better than this? A group, being the minority, said: gave you not this man your covenants and oaths by Allah opposing him in nothing, while he spoke you truth in his first discourse? By Allah, he will speak you truth in his last! He went with whoever followed him, and the rest stayed: an enemy surprised them: they became between captive and slain." Ibn Abi al-Dunya reports it. Imam Ahmad reports it from the hadith of Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jud'an, from Yusuf ibn Mihran, from Ibn Abbas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), in meaning, abridged. This parable is perfectly conforming to the Prophet's state (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) with his community: he came to them, the Arabs then the people's most humiliated, fewest, worst in worldly living and Hereafter state: he called them to the salvation way's course: his truthfulness's proofs appeared to them, like appeared the truthfulness of the one who came to the desert's people, their water spent and backs perished: by his vision traveling in a garment, water dripping from his head; and he guided them to water and verdant gardens: they inferred by his appearance and state his speech's truthfulness: and followed him. He promised whoever followed conquest of Persia's and Rome's lands, taking their treasures, and warned them of being beguiled thereby and standing with him; commanded them contenting the world with conveyance, seriousness and effort seeking the Hereafter and readying for it. They found all he promised them true. When the world opened to them, as he promised, most people busied gathering and hoarding it, competing therein, content residing therein and enjoying its desires, abandoning the Hereafter's readying he commanded seeking seriously: few accepted his counsel of effort seeking the Hereafter. This small band: saved, joining her prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the Hereafter, having followed his way in the world, accepted his counsel, executed his command. Most people remained in the world's drunkenness and competition: busying them from the Hereafter, until death surprised them suddenly in this drunkenness: they perished, becoming between slain and captive. Yahya ibn Mu'adh said most beautifully: "The world is the devil's wine: whoever drinks thereof wakes not but in the dead's army, regretting among the losers."

The second state

The second state: the believer sees himself in the world as a traveler dwelling not at all: he only crosses the journey's stages, until the journey ends at its end: death. Whoever's state in the world is this: his energy attaining the journey's provision, no energy amassing the world's baggage: hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) counselled some of his companions their world's share like the rider's provision.

Of the predecessors' reports

Muhammad ibn Wasi' was told: how did you wake? He said: "What think you of a man traveling to the Hereafter each day a stage?" Al-Hasan said: "You are but days: each day passing, part of you departs." He said: "O son of Adam! You are but between two mounts depositing you: the day deposits you to the night, the night to the day: until they deposit you to the Hereafter: who is greater hazard than you, O son of Adam?!" He said: "Death is knotted at your napes, and the world folds behind you." Dawud at-Ta'i said: "The night and day are but stages people descend stage by stage, until ending at their journey's end: could you advance each stage provision for what is before: do so; for the journey's breaking is near, and the matter hastier: provision your journey, and fulfill what you aim of your affair: the matter may already have surprised you?!" Some predecessors wrote a brother: "O brother! You imagine resident? You are rather constant-walking, driven rapid: death directed to you, the world folding behind; your life's past returns never: until it returns not on the troc day. As said: Your way in the world is the traveler's way... every traveler needs provision. Man needs baggage... especially fearing a subduer's assault." Some sages said: "How rejoice he whose day demolishes his month, his month his year, his year his life? How rejoice he whom his life leads to his term, his living leads to his death?" Al-Fudayl ibn Iyad said to a man: how many years passed you? He said: sixty. He said: sixty years you walk to your Lord! About to arrive? The man said: "We belong to Allah, and to Him return." Al-Fudayl said: know you its tafsir? You say: I am to Allah a servant, to Him returning: whoever knows he is to Allah a servant and to Him returning, let him know he is detained; whoever knows he is detained, let him know he is asked; whoever knows he is asked, let him ready the answer. The man said: what is the remedy? He said: easy. He said: which? He said: "do good in the remaining: the past forgiven: if you do evil in the remaining, you are taken for the past and remaining." Of this meaning some say: "A man walked sixty pilgrimages... toward a watering-place of his: near." Some sages said: "Whose days and nights are mounts: they travel him though he travels not." Hereof some say: "These days are but stages... a death-caller hastening; and wondrous if you consider: they are... homes folding, the traveler seated!" Another said: "O woe my soul: a day leading her... to the dead's army, a night defending her!" Al-Hasan said: "The night and day never ceased running in lives' decrease and terms' nearness: away! They passed Nuh, Ad, Thamud and many generations: they rose preceded to their Lord, arrived at their deeds: the night and day became two young colts untired by what they passed: ready for whoever remains, of what befell the departed." Al-Awza'i wrote a brother: "As to it: you are surrounded every side: know you are driven walking every day and night: fear Allah and the standing before Him; and be your last covenant with Him: and salam. We travel to the terms each moment... our days fold: they are stages?! I saw nothing like death truly... when ambitions overtake it: false! How ugly the slackness in youth's time... how when grayness envelops the head! Travel the world with a piety provision... your life is days, and few!"

Ibn Umar's counsel

As for Ibn Umar's counsel, may Allah be pleased with him: taken from this hadith he reports, containing hope's utmost shortening: man, sleeping, expects not morning; rising, expects not evening: deeming his term surprises him before. Not one of the scholars explained the world's detachment thus.

Detachment in the predecessors' sayings

Al-Marwudhi said: I said to Abu Abd Allah, meaning Ahmad: what is detachment from the world? He said: "hope's shortening: whoever rises saying: I pass not the evening." Sufyan said likewise. Abu Abd Allah was told: by what do we seek aid in hope's shortening? He said: "we know not: it is a grant." Al-Hasan said: three scholars gathered, saying to one: what is your hope? He said: "Not a month passing but I deem dying therein." His two companions said: this is the hope. They said the second: what is your hope? He said: "Not a week passing but I deem dying therein." They said: this is the hope. They said the third: what is your hope? He said: "What is the hope of he whose soul is in another's hand?!" Dawud at-Ta'i said: I asked Atwan ibn Amr at-Tamimi: what is hope's shortening? He said: "what is between two breaths." Al-Fudayl ibn Iyad was informed: he wept, saying: he means he breathes fearing dying before his breath's end: Atwan was of the most cautious before death. Some predecessors said: "I never slept a sleep but I told myself I would wake from it." Habib, Abu Muhammad, counselled each day what the dying is counselled at death: washing and such. He wept each rising and lying; his wife was asked his weeping, saying: "By Allah, he sleeps fearing not rising, and rises fearing not sleeping." Muhammad ibn Wasi', intending sleep, said to his family: "I commend you to Allah: perhaps it is my death rising not from." It was his habit intending sleep. Bakr al-Muzani said: "If one of you can lie not without his will written at his head: let him: he knows not: he may lie among the world's people and rise among the Hereafter's people." Uways, told: how is the time? said: "How is the time for a man: sleeping he deems not rising, rising he deems not lying: gladdened of Paradise or Fire?" Awne ibn Abd Allah said: "None abased death to its reality, whoever counted tomorrow of his terms?! How many expecting a day completing it not! How many hoping morrow attaining it not! Were you to see the term and its march: you would hate hope and its deception." He said: "Of the believer's most useful days in the world: what he deems not attaining its end." A Meccan worshiping woman, lying, said: "O soul! Tonight is your night: no night beside: strive"; rising: "O soul! Today is your day: none beside: strive." Bakr al-Muzani said: "Wanting your prayer benefiting: say: perhaps I pray none besides." Taken from the Prophet's report (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Pray a farewell prayer." Ma'ruf al-Karkhi performed prayer, saying to a man: advance, pray with us! The man said: praying with you this prayer, I pray not another with you? Ma'ruf said: "You tell your soul praying another prayer: we seek refuge with Allah from hope's length: it prevents deed's good." Some knocked his brother's door asking him; told: he is not in the house; he said: when returns he? A maidservant said: "Whose soul is in another's hand: who knows when he returns?" Abu al-Atahiya said: "And know I, hoping a long life... perhaps rising, of the bygone I be not. Saw you not each morning of day... your life in it shorter than yesterday?" This second verse taken from Abu al-Darda's and al-Hasan's report, saying: "O son of Adam! You never cease in your life's demolition since falling from your mother's belly." Of what some predecessors recited: "We rejoice at days abbreviating them... each day passed nears the term. Work for your soul before death, striving... gain and loss are in the deed."

Take from your health for your sickness

His saying: "and take from your health for your sickness, and from your life for your death" means: seize righteous deeds in health, before sickness bars you; and in life, before death. A version: "you know not, O servant of Allah! Your name tomorrow?" meaning: perhaps tomorrow of the dead, not living. This counsel's meaning is reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by routes: in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from Ibn Abbas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Two blessings many people are cheated in: health, and leisure." [Seize five before five:] In al-Hakim's Sahih, from Ibn Abbas, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to a man, counselling him: "Seize five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your leisure before your occupation, and your life before your death." Ghunaym ibn Qays said: "We counselled in Islam's beginning: O son of Adam! Work in your leisure before your occupation, youth before age, health before sickness, world before Hereafter, life before death." [Hasten to six:] In the Sahih of Muslim, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Hasten to deeds six: the sun's rising from its west, or smoke, or the Dajjal, or the beast, or your private affair, or the public affair." [Seven:] In at-Tirmidhi, from him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Hasten to deeds seven: expect you but poverty misleading, wealth tyrannizing, sickness corrupting, old age ending, death surprising, the Dajjal: worst of absent awaited, or the Hour: the Hour more bitter and harsher?" Intended: all these impede deeds: some occupy: man's private affair: poverty, wealth, sickness, old age, death. [And fitnas like the dark night's pieces:] Some general: the Hour's standing, Dajjal's emergence, and vexing fitnas: another hadith: "Hasten to deeds: fitnas like the dark night's pieces." Some general matters: deed thereafter profits not, as the Most High said:

"The day some of your Lord's signs come: a soul's faith profits it not that believed not before, or earned good in its faith."

Al-An'am, 158

In the two authentic collections, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The Hour rises not until the sun rises from its west: when it rises and people see it, all believe: that is when a soul's faith profits it not that believed not before, or earned good in its faith." In the Sahih of Muslim, from him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Three, when emerging, a soul's faith profits it not that believed not before, or earned good in its faith: the sun's rising from its west, the Dajjal, and earth's beast." In it also, from him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever repents before the sun rising from its west: Allah repents toward him." From Abu Musa, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, stretches His hand by night, that the day's sinner repent; stretches by day, that the night's sinner repent: until the sun rises from its west." Imam Ahmad, an-Nasa'i, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah report from Safwan ibn Assal's hadith, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "Allah opened a gate before the west, seventy years' breadth for repentance: closing not until the sun rises from it." In the Musnad, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, Abd Allah ibn Amr and Mu'awiya, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Repentance keeps accepted until the sun rises from its west: when it rises, each heart is sealed by what is in it, and people are dispensed of deed." Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, is reported: "When the first of the signs emerges, pens are cast, keepers detained, bodies witnessing deeds." Ibn Jarir at-Tabari reports it. Kathir ibn Murra, Yazid ibn Sulayman and other predecessors say likewise: "When the sun rises from its west, hearts are sealed by what they hold; keepers' deeds raised, angels commanded writing no deed." Sufyan ath-Thawri said: "When the sun rises from its west, angels fold their leaves, setting their pens down."

Hastening to righteous deeds is obligatory

The believer must hasten righteous deeds before losing ability, obstacle between him and them: by sickness, death, or one of these signs deed not accepted with. Abu Hazim said: "The Hereafter's merchandise is perishable: about to run out: none reaches of it little nor much." When an obstacle is set between man and deed, only regret and grief remain, wishing return to a state enabling deed: wish profits not. The Most High says:

"Return to your Lord, submit to Him, before punishment reaches you: then you are not helped. Follow the best of what your Lord sent down, before punishment reaches you suddenly, unaware: lest a soul say: alas what I neglected by Allah's side! And I was of the mockers! Or say: had Allah guided me, I would have been of the mindful! Or say, seeing the punishment: had I a return, I would be of the good-doers!"

Az-Zumar, 54-58

and the Most High says:

"Until death comes to one of them, he says: Lord! Return me: perhaps I work good in what I left. No! It is a word he says: behind them a barzakh to the day they are resurrected."

Al-Mu'minun, 99-100

and the Mighty and Majestic says:

"Spend of what We provided you, before death comes to one of you: he says: Lord! Delay me to a near term, that I give charity and be of the righteous: Allah delays never a soul when its term comes."

Al-Munafiqun, 10

In at-Tirmidhi, from Abu Hurayra, in raised form: "None dies but regrets." They said: his regret, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "Righteous: regrets not having added; sinner: regrets not having repented." The matter being so: the believer must seize life's remainder. Hence said: "the believer's remaining life has no value." Sa'id ibn Jubayr said: "Every day the believer lives is booty." Bakr al-Muzani said: "No day Allah brings into the world but it says: O son of Adam! Seize me: perhaps no day after me. No night but cries: O son of Adam! Seize me: perhaps no night after me." Of some: "Seize in leisure the bowing surplus... perhaps death surprises you suddenly. How many sound I saw without sickness... his sound soul departing!" And of Mahmoud al-Warraq: "Your yesterday past went a witness attested... followed by a day new to you. Yesterday you committed wrong... catch it with good, being praised. Your day, if neglected, its benefit falls... on you: yesterday's past returns not. Report not a day's good deed to morrow... perhaps morrow comes, you absent."