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Hadith number 40 of the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi, in faithful English translation.
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Updated on 07 October 2026 at 4:51 AM
📖 26 min readThis hadith belongs to the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him), the most studied hadith compilation in the world: foundations of faith, worship and character, all authentic narrations.
Ibn Majah reports it, without mentioning the words of Ibn 'Omar. And Imam Ahmad and an-Nasa'i report from the hadith of al-'Awza'i, from 'Abda ibn Abi Loubaba, from Ibn 'Omar, who said: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took hold of a part of my body and said, "Worship Allah as though you saw Him; and be in the low world as a stranger, or a passer-by." 'Abda ibn Abi Loubaba met Ibn 'Omar: his hearing of him was a matter of divergence.
This hadith is an origin of the shortening of hope in the low world, and that the believer must not take the low world as homeland and dwelling, finding rest in it; rather he must be therein as upon the wing of a journey, preparing his baggage for departure. The recommendations of the prophets and of their followers agreed therein.
[The recommendations of the prophets and their followers:] The Most High says, citing the believer of the family of Pharaoh:
"O my people! This life of the world is only a passing enjoyment: and the Hereafter is the dwelling of stability."
Ghafir, 39
And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to say, "What have I to do with the low world? My example and the example of the low world are like a rider who stopped in the shade of a tree, then departed, leaving it." Among the recommendations of the Messiah, upon him peace, to his companions: "Cross it, and dwell not in it." And it is reported from him, "Who is it that builds a dwelling upon the wave of the sea? Such is the low world: take it not then as a dwelling." A man entered upon Abu Dhar, casting his gaze about his house, and said: O Abu Dhar! Where is your baggage? He said: we have a house towards which we are heading. He said: you need baggage so long as you are here. He said: the holder of the house does not leave us dwell in it. And one entered upon certain of the righteous, casting his gaze about his house, and said: we see your house a house of a man in travel. He said: in travel?
No: rather I am driven out, driven out. 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say, "The low world has set out, turning away; the Hereafter has set out, arriving: each of the two has its sons: be then sons of the Hereafter, and be not sons of the low world, for today there is deed without reckoning, and tomorrow reckoning without deed." Certain of the sages said, "I wonder at the one whom the low world flees and towards whom the Hereafter arrives, busying himself with the fleeing one and turning away from the arriving one?!" 'Omar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz said in his sermon, "The low world is not your dwelling of residence: Allah has written therein annihilation, and written to its people removal; how many an adorned inhabitant vanishes in a little while! And how many a resident enchanted is removed in little! Do then, may Allah have mercy on you, the finest of journeying with the finest of what you have for travel, and provide yourselves, for the best of provisions is piety."
The low world being neither dwelling of residence nor homeland for the believer: the believer must be therein in one of two states: like a stranger residing in a land of strangeness, whose concern is provision for the return to his homeland; or like a traveller not resident at all, his night and his day in march towards the land of residence.
That is why the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recommended to Ibn 'Omar to be in the low world in one of these two states.
The first state
The first: that the believer see himself as a stranger in the low world, imagining himself residing in a land of strangeness: his heart is not attached to the land of strangeness, but his heart is attached to his homeland towards which he returns; he resides in the low world only for the maintenance of his baggage for the return to his homeland.
Al-Foudayl ibn Iyad said, "The believer in the low world is concerned and saddened: his concern is the maintenance of his baggage. Whoever is thus in the low world has no energy but the provision of what avails him for his return to his homeland: he does not rival the people of the country whose stranger he is among them in their nobility, nor grieve at their baseness." Al-Hasan said, "The believer in the low world is like the stranger: he grieves not at its baseness, and rivals not in its nobility: he has his affair, and the people their affair!!" When Allah created Adam, upon him peace, he and his wife were made to dwell in Paradise, then descended from it, promised the return to it, together with their descendants. The believer therefore ever has the longing for his first homeland: and the love of the homeland is of faith. As it is said, "How many a dwelling for a man that the young man grew accustomed to... and his longing ever for the first dwelling."
And from certain of our Ancients, "Salvation upon the gardens of Adn: they are... your first dwellings, and there the encampment! But we are captives of the enemy: is it seen... that we return to our homelands and submit? And they claim that the stranger, when he goes far... and his homelands scatter: he is a lover: and what strangeness above our strangeness, whose... enemies have become arbiters among us?!" 'Ata as-Soulaymi would say in his supplication, "O Allah! Have mercy on my strangeness in the low world, have mercy on my solitude in the tomb, and have mercy on my standing tomorrow before You."
Al-Hasan said: it has reached me that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to his companions, "My example, yours, and the example of the low world: a people who journeyed across a bleached desert; when they knew not how much of it they had covered and what remained, their provision ran out, their backs were laden: they remained in the middle of the desert without provision nor load: they were on the point of perishing. While they were thus, a man came out to them in a travelling habit, water dripping from his head. They said: this is the one, recently come out of the countryside: how could this have come to him, save 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 contradict you in nothing. He said: your covenants and your oaths by Allah!
They gave him their covenants and oaths by Allah to contradict him in nothing. He led them therefore to the water and the green gardens, and said: they dwelt there as long as Allah willed, then said: O you! The departure. They said: towards where? He said: towards a water that is not like your water, and gardens that are not like your gardens. Most of the people said: by Allah, we found nothing of this but until we thought we should never find it: and what have we to do with a life better than this one? And a part, who were the minority, said: did you not give him your covenants and your oaths by Allah to contradict him in nothing, when he told you true in his first speech? By Allah, he will tell you true in the last! He departed therefore with those who followed him, and the others remained: an enemy surprised them: they became between captive and slain."
Ibn Abi ad-Dunya reports it. And Imam Ahmad reports it from the hadith of 'Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jou'dan, from Youssouf ibn Mihran, from Ibn 'Abbas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), in the sense, in abridged form. Here is a parable perfectly according with the state of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) with his community: he came to them, while the Arabs were the most humiliated of people, the least numerous and the worst of life in the low world and of state in the Hereafter; he called them to follow the way of salvation; the proofs of his truthfulness appeared to them, as appeared the truthfulness of the one who came to the people of the desert, their water exhausted and their backs perished: by his vision in a travelling habit, water dripping from his head; and he guided them to the water and the verdant gardens: they deduced from his appearance and his state the truthfulness of his word, and followed him.
And he promised whoever followed him the conquest of the lands of Persia and Rome, the taking of their treasures, and warned them not to be deceived thereby and to settle therein; and commanded them to be content with the low world by way of conveyance, in earnestness and striving in the quest of the Hereafter and preparation for it. They found therefore all that he had promised them true. When the low world was opened to them, as he had promised them, most of the people busied themselves with amassing and heaping it, with rivalry in it, contenting themselves to reside therein and enjoy its desires, abandoning the preparation of the Hereafter he commanded them to seek with earnestness and striving; few accepted his counsel in striving for the Hereafter and the preparation. That little troop therefore saved itself and joined its prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the Hereafter, having followed his way in the low world, accepted his counsel, and executed what he commanded.
Most of the people remained in the intoxication of the low world and rivalry in it: it busied them from the Hereafter, until death surprised them suddenly in that intoxication: they perished, becoming between slain and captive. Yahya ibn Mu'adh spoke most beautifully, "The low world is the wine of the devil: whoever becomes intoxicated with it wakes only in the army of the dead, regretting among the losers."
The second state: that the believer see himself in the low world as a traveller not resident at all: he does nothing but cover the stages of the journey, until the journey brings him to its end, which is death. Whoever is in that state in the low world: his energy is the provision of the journey, without energy to heap up baggage of the low world; that is why the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recommended to a group of his companions that their portion of the low world be like the provision of a rider.
It was said to Mouhammad ibn Wasi', how did you wake? He said, "What think you of a man who journeys towards the Hereafter one stage each day?" Al-Hasan said, "You are only days: each day that passes, a part of you departs." And he said, "O son of Adam! You are only between two mounts that set you down: the day sets you down at the night, and the night at the day, until they set you down at the Hereafter: who is in greater peril than you, O son of Adam?!" And he said, "Death is chained at your napes, and the low world folds behind you." Dawoud at-Ta'i said, "The night and the day are only stages that the people cross stage by stage, until that leads them to the end of their journey: if you can advance at each stage a provision for what is ahead, do it, for the breaking of the journey is near, and the matter more pressing: provide yourself for your journey, and accomplish what you aim of your affair; the affair would have already surprised you?!"
And certain righteous Ancients wrote to his brother, "O my brother! You imagine yourself a resident? You are rather in constant march, carried in a swift march: death directed towards you, and the low world folding behind you; and what has passed of your life shall never return to you, until it return not to you on the day of the barter. As it is said: Your path in the low world is the path of the traveller... and every traveller needs a provision. And man has need of equipment... especially if he fears the assault of a dominator." Certain of the sages said, "How should he rejoice whose day demolishes his month, his month his year, his year his life? How should he rejoice whose life leads him to his term, and whose life leads him to his death?" And al-Foudayl ibn Iyad said to a man: how many years have come upon you? He said: sixty years. He said: for sixty years you have been marching towards your Lord! Are you on the point of arriving?
The man said, "We belong to Allah, and towards Him is the return." Al-Foudayl said: do you know its tafsir? You say: I am to Allah a servant, and towards Him returning: whoever knows he is to Allah a servant and towards Him returning, let him know he is detained; whoever knows he is detained, let him know he is questioned; and whoever knows he is questioned, let him prepare the answer to the question. The man said: and what is the solution? He said: easy. He said: which? He said, "Be good in what remains: what has passed shall be pardoned you; if you do ill in what remains, you shall be reproached for what has passed and for what remains." Of this sense some say, "A man has walked sixty pilgrimages... towards a ford of his drinking place: near." Certain of the sages said, "He whose days and nights are mounts, they journey with him, even were he not to journey."
Of this some say, "These days are only stages... that a caller to death hastens; and a wonder it is, if you contemplate: they are... dwellings folding, and the traveller seated!" And another says, "O woe to my soul: a day carrying it... to the army of the dead, and a night defending it!" Al-Hasan said, "The night and the day have never ceased running in the diminution of lives and the nearing of terms: alas! They made pass Nouh, 'Ad, Thamoud and many generations: they rose preceded towards their Lord, arrived at their deeds: and the night and the day became two young colts, not wearied by what they traversed, ready for whoever remains, of what befell the departed."
And al-'Awza'i wrote to his brother, "As for that: you are surrounded on every side: know that you are carried in march every day and night; fear Allah therefore and the standing before Him, and let the last of your covenants with Him be that, and salam. We journey towards the terms at every instant... and our days fold: are they stages?! I have seen nothing like the dead man truly... when ambitions outstrip him: falsehood! How ugly the letting go in the time of youth... how then would it be, the whiteness of the skull enveloping?! Journey of the low world with a provision of piety... your life is days, and they are few!"
As for the counsel of Ibn 'Omar, may Allah be pleased with him: it is drawn from this hadith which he reports, containing the utmost of the shortening of hope: that the man, when he lies down, expect not the morning; and when he rises, expect not the evening, but believe his term surprises him before. Several scholars explained the detachment from the low world thus.
Al-Marouzi said: I said to Abu 'Abd Allah, that is, Ahmad: what is detachment from the low world? He said, "the shortening of hope: whoever rises in the morning saying, I shall not pass the evening." And Soufyan said likewise. It was said to Abu 'Abd Allah: by what do we seek aid for the shortening of hope? He said, "We know not: it is a support." Al-Hasan said: three scholars gathered, and said to one: what is your hope? He said, "Not a month passed but that I believed to die in it." His two companions said: that is hope. They said to the second: what is your hope? He said, "Not a week passed but that I believed to die in it." They said: that is hope. They said to the third: what is your hope? He said, "What is the hope of the one whose soul is in the hand of another?!" Dawoud at-Ta'i said: I asked 'Atwan ibn 'Amr at-Tamimi: what is the shortening of hope?
He said, "That which is between two breaths." Al-Foudayl ibn Iyad was informed: he wept, and said: he means that he breathes fearing to die before the end of his breath; 'Atwan was of the most cautious before death. Certain righteous Ancients used to say, "I never slept a sleep without saying to myself that I would wake in it." And Habib, Abu Mouhammad, recommended each day what the dying man recommends at his death: his great ablution and the like. And he wept each time he rose in the morning or lay down in the evening; his wife was asked about his weeping and said, "By Allah, he lies down fearing not to rise, and rises fearing not to lie down." Mouhammad ibn Wasi', wanting to sleep, would say to his family, "I commend you to Allah: perhaps it is my death from which I shall not rise." And it was his habit when wanting to sleep.
Bakr al-Muzani said, "If one of you can lie down without his testament written by his head, let him do so: for he knows not: he may lie down among the people of the low world and rise among the people of the Hereafter." 'Ouways, when it was said to him, how goes the time? would say, "How goes the time for a man: if he lies down, he believes he shall not rise; if he rises, he believes he shall not lie down: happy with the Paradise or the Fire?" 'Awne ibn 'Abd Allah would say, "None has brought death down to its true rank, the one counting tomorrow among his terms?! How many a man awaiting a day without completing it! And how many hoping for the morrow without attaining it! Were you to see the term and its march, you would detest hope and its deception." And he said, "Among the days most useful to the believer in the low world: that which he believes not to complete its end."
A worshipping woman at Mecca, when she lay down, would say, "O soul! This night is your night: you have no night other than it," and she strove; when she rose in the morning, she would say, "O soul! This day is your day: you have no day other than it," and she strove. Bakr al-Muzani said, "If you wish your prayer to avail you, say: perhaps I shall pray no other than it." And that is drawn from what is reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Make a prayer of farewell." And Ma'rouf al-Karkhi performed the prayer, then said to a man: come forward and pray with us! The man said: if I pray with you this prayer, I shall not pray with you another? Ma'rouf said, "You say to your soul that you shall pray another prayer: we seek refuge with Allah against the length of hope; it hinders the good of the deed."
Certain knocked at the door of his brother, inquiring after him; it was said: he is not in the house; he said: when does he return? A servant of the house said to him, "The one whose soul is in the hand of another: who knows when he returns?" And Abu al-'Atahiya said, "And what know I: were I to hope for a long life... perhaps, rising in the morning, I should not be of the age gone past? Have you seen that each morning of day... your life therein is shorter than the eve?" And this second verse is drawn from what is reported from Abu ad-Darda and al-Hasan, saying, "O son of Adam! You cease not to be in the demolition of your life since your coming out of your mother's womb." And among what certain righteous Ancients recited, "We rejoice at the days while shortening them... and each day passed draws near the term. Work then for your soul before death, in striving... for the gain and the loss are in the deed."
His words, "and take from your health for your sickness, and from your life for your death," mean: seizing the righteous deeds in health, before sickness sets a barrier between you and them, and in life, before death sets the barrier. And in a version, "You know not, O servant of Allah! What is your name tomorrow?", meaning: perhaps tomorrow you will be of the dead, not the living. The meaning of this recommendation is reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by channels: in the Sahih of al-Boukhari, from Ibn 'Abbas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Two blessings of which many people are defrauded: health, and leisure." [Seize five before five:] In the Sahih of al-Hakim, 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."
And Ghunaym ibn Qays said, "We used to counsel one another in the first days of Islam: O son of Adam! Act in your leisure before your occupation, in your youth before your old age, in your health before your sickness, in your low world before your Hereafter, and in your life before your death." [Hasten to six things:] In the Sahih of Mouslim, from Abu Hourayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Hasten to the deeds six: the rising of the sun from its west, or the smoke, or the Dajjal, or the beast, or the particular affair of one of you, or the general affair." [Seven:] In at-Tirmidhi, from him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Hasten to the deeds seven: expect you other than a poverty that misleads, a wealth that tyrannises, a sickness that corrupts, an old age that ends, a death that surprises, the Dajjal, worst of the absent awaited, or the Hour: the Hour is more bitter and harder?"
The intent: all these things obstruct the deeds: some busy one from them, being the particular affair of man: his poverty, his wealth, his sickness, his old age and his death. [And trials like the portions of the night:] And some are general: like the rising of the Hour, the coming out of the Dajjal, and likewise the importunate trials, as has come in another hadith, "Hasten to the deeds: trials like the portions of the dark night." Certain of these general affairs: the deed after them does not serve, as the Most High says:
"The day some sign of your Lord comes: the faith of a soul that had not believed before, or had not acquired in its faith some good, shall no longer serve it."
Al-An'am, 158
In the two authentic collections, from Abu Hourayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "The Hour shall not rise until the sun rises from its west: when it rises and the people see it, they will all believe: that is the moment when the faith of a soul that had not believed before, or had not acquired in its faith some good, shall no longer serve it." And in the Sahih of Mouslim, from him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Three, when they come out: the faith of a soul that had not believed before, or had not acquired in its faith some good, shall no longer serve it: the rising of the sun from its west, the Dajjal, and the beast of the earth." And in the same collection also, from him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Whoever repents before the sun rises from its west, Allah turns to him in forgiveness."
And from Abu Moussa, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, stretches His hand by night, that the offender of the day may repent, and stretches His hand by day, that the offender of the night may repent, until the sun rises from its west." And Imam Ahmad, an-Nasa'i, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah report from the hadith of Safwan ibn Assal, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said, "Allah opened a gate before the west, of the width of seventy years, for repentance: then it shall not close until the sun rises from it." And in the Mousnad, from 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn 'Awf, from 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr and from Mou'awiya, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Repentance ceases not to be accepted until the sun rises from its west: when it rises, it shall be sealed upon every heart by what is in it, and the people shall be dispensed from deed."
And it is reported from 'Aicha, may Allah be pleased with her, "When the first of the signs comes out, the pens are cast, the guardians withheld, and the bodies witness the deeds." Ibn Jarir at-Tabari reports it. And Kathir ibn Mourra, Yazid ibn Soulayman and others of the righteous Ancients say the like, "When the sun rises from its west, it is sealed upon the hearts by what they contain; the deeds of the guardians are taken up, and the angels commanded to write no deed." And Soufyan ath-Thawri said, "When the sun rises from its west, the angels fold their pages and lay down their pens."
It is therefore obligatory upon the believer to hasten to the righteous deeds before being unable to, before an obstacle be set between him and them: by sickness, death, or one of these signs with which the deed is not accepted. Abu Hazim said, "The trade of the Hereafter is perishable, on the point of being exhausted: neither little nor much reaches it." When therefore an obstacle is set between the man and the deed, there remains to him only regret and sorrow, wishing the return to a state wherein he might act: ambition avails him not. The Most High says:
"Turn then towards your Lord, and submit to Him, before the punishment reaches you: then you shall not be succoured. And follow the best of what has been sent down to you from your Lord, before the punishment reaches you suddenly, while you perceive not: lest a soul say, alas for what I neglected with Allah! And that I was of the mockers! Or lest it say, had Allah guided me, I should have been of the God-fearing! Or lest it say, seeing the punishment: had I a return, I should be of the beneficent!"
Az-Zoumar, 54-58
and the Most High says:
"Until death comes to one of them, and he says: Lord! Send me back, that I may do good in what I left. No! It is a word he says: and behind them, a barzakh until the day they are resurrected."
Al-Mou'minoun, 99-100
and the Mighty and Majestic says:
"And spend of what We have provided you, before death comes to one of you, that he say: Lord! Why didst Thou not defer me to a term near, that I might give alms and be of the righteous? And Allah never defers a soul when its term comes."
Al-Mounafiqoun, 10
In at-Tirmidhi, from Abu Hourayra, in raised form, "No dead man dies without regretting." They said: and what is his regret, O Messenger of Allah? He said, "If he is beneficent, he regrets not having done more; if he is faulty, he regrets not having repented." The matter being thus, it is obligatory upon the believer to seize what remains of his life. That is why it has been said, "the remainder of the life of the believer has no value." Sa'id ibn Joubayr said, "Every day the believer lives is a booty." Bakr al-Muzani said, "Not a day Allah brings out into the low world but that it says: O son of Adam! Seize me, for there is perhaps no day after me. Not a night but that it cries: O son of Adam! Seize me, for there is perhaps no night for you after me." And of certain, "Seize in the leisure the surplus of inclination... perhaps your death will surprise you suddenly. How many a sound one I have seen without sickness... his sound soul departing!"
And of Mahmoud al-Warraq, "Your yesterday gone has departed a witness attesting... and there followed it a day new to you. If therefore yesterday you committed a fault... catch it up with a good deed, being praised. Your day, if you neglect it, its utility falls... upon you: and the past of yesterday returns not. And you postpone not the deed of good from one day to a morrow... perhaps the morrow will come, and you will be gone."