Seclusion According to the Wise

46 - Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to me, he said: One of the wise said: "Have you not seen the solitary one—how sweet is his scrupulousness (waraʿ), how elevated is his living, how contented is his soul with moderation, how safe he is from people, and how distant he is, even if he appears prepared against the vicissitudes of time while being humble? If he is denied, his anxieties are few; if he suffers misfortune, his regret is little; if he receives, rights upon him do not multiply; if he faces hardship, patience is not burdensome upon him; if he is content, death does not distress him; if he seeks, abundance does not delight him. He does not complain of another's pain, nor does he fear except for himself. And the possessor of abundance is the target aimed at by time, its sought-after vengeance, and the victim felled by its calamities and afflictions! How continuous is his toil, how scant his rest, how wretched his share and lot from his wealth, how intense his apprehension of time, and how exhausted time is by his wound and deficiency! Moreover, he is caught between a ruler watching him, an enemy wronging him, obligations questioning him, peers competing with him, and children wishing for his death. Hardship is sent upon him by his ruler, envy from his peers, oppression from his enemies, and blame from unfulfilled rights. He does not seek beyond sufficiency; he is content, so his joy endures; he rejects the world, so he is safe from envy; and he is satisfied with bare subsistence, so obligations bypass him." (1)