158 - ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Maryam narrated to me, from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn: Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Thaqafī narrated to me: Muḍar Abū Saʿīd al-Qāriʾ narrated to me, saying: A worshipper on one of the coasts said: "By Allah, O man, you do not seek to follow His good pleasure with anything more effective for what you desire than avoiding His wrath." He said: Then he wept and said: "And how can it be, when the delusion of hopes distracts us from the swift passage of lifespan?" He said: Then he wept and said: "Do not marvel, O man, at an oversight and heedlessness that have overcome our intellects; for we covet this world and work for it, without increasing our provisions by our covetousness and work for it, while we abandon our share in the everlasting abode from this vanishing abode—wherein its people are granted provision without measure—and this abode was only made as a path to reach the other abode." He said: "For indeed, our deeds and our eagerness in seeking the Hereafter increase our provision and pleasures in this world and the Hereafter." Then he wept and said: "O servant of Allah, fortify yourself with patience upon His will, and it will convey you to the best of what you desire with Him; for we have seen nothing like patience in His obedience."
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