2. He said: Abu Ubaidullah Muhammad ibn Imran al-Marzbani reported to me from Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Makki, who reported from Abu al-Ayna, from Muhammad ibn al-Hakam, from Lut ibn Yahya, from al-Harith ibn Ka’b, from Mujahid who reported that: Amirul Mu’mineen ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him, said: "Be least interested in this world from which no one from your predecessors ever benefited, nor will it remain for anyone after you have gone! The path you are walking on is the same as that of the bygones, totally cut off and subjected to annihilations, their good deeds forgotten and unknown. This world warns its inmates of destruction, and its residents of Death. That which was once sweet from it has become bitter; and that which was once clear has become turbid. Nothing has ever remained in it except like the last droplets of water in a vessel, or a few gulps, which if a thirsty were to suck up, would not be satiated. So, be prepared for a journey from this abode, whose residents are destined to perish, and prevented from living forever. They have been submitted to dying, therefore no life should crave perpetuity. Everyone here awaits death. Let no hopes and expectations digress you, nor should you regard it as a long age; and do not be deceived by its promises. And, if you were to roam about like a camel yearning to find its heifer and coo like a dove, calling its young one, and raise your beseeching cry like a worshipful hermit, and come out together with your wealth and children, so as to seek nearness to Him, and be elevated in His estimation; or to be forgiven the sins which His angels and scribes have recorded, it would all be too little to earn His reward which I hope for you, or to be saved from His wrath which I fear for you. May Allah keep us and you among the repentents and the worshipping ones."