`Abdullah b. al-Nadr b. Sam`an al-Taymi رضي الله عنه narrated to us. He said: Abu’l Qasim Ja`far b. Muhammad al-Makki narrated to us. He said: Abu’l Hasan `Abdullah b. Muhammad b. `Amr al-Atrush al-Harrani narrated to us. He said: Salih b. Ziyad Abu Shu`ayb al-Susi narrated to us. He said: Abu Thaman al-Sukri narrated to us – and his name is `Abdullah b. Maymun. He said: `Abdullah b. Mu`iz al-Awdi narrated to us. He said: `Imran b. Sulaym narrated to us from Suwayd b. Ghafla from Tawus al-Yamani. He said: I passed by a stone and I found a person bowing and prostrating. I looked at him, and I found that it was `Ali b. al-Husayn عليه السلام. So, I said to myself: A righteous man from the People of the House of Prophethood. By Allah, I need his supplication. So, I began watching him until he completed his prayer and raised his hands to the sky and said: My Master! My Master! These are my hands that I stretch out to You, filled with sin. My eyes reach for You in hope. The right of one who supplicates to You in regret and humility is that You answer him with bounteous generosity. My Master! Did You create me to be of the people of sorrow, so that I may lengthen my weeping; or did You create me from the people of happiness, so that my hope may be delighted? My Master! Did You create my appendages to be stricken with rods? Did You create my gut to consume boiling water? My Master! Were a slave able to flee from his master, I would [then] be the first to flee from You; but I know that I would not be able to escape You. My Master! If punishing me were to expand Your sovereignty, then I would have asked You for patience over that. However, I know that the obedience of the obedient does not expand Your sovereignty, and the disobedience of the disobedient does not diminish it. My Master! What am I, and what risk do I pose? Extinguish my errors with Your grace, dignify me with Your covering, and pardon my punishment with the generosity of Your Face. My God and my Master! Forgive me when I am in agony on my deathbed and when my loved ones turn me over. Have mercy on me when I am washed by my righteous neighbours. Have mercy on me when I am carried by my relatives to my funeral. Have mercy on my loneliness, my estrangement, and my solitude in that dark home. Tawus said: I wept until my wailing intensified. So, he turned to me and said: What makes you weep, Yamani? Or is this not the [correct] status of sinners? So, I said: My beloved! It is a right upon Allah that He answers you, as your grandfather is Muhammad صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم. He said: A delegation of his companions came forward, so he turned to them and said: O my companions! I advise you of the Hereafter, and I do not advise you of this world, for you are directed by it, coveting of it, and holding onto it. O my companions! Surely, this world is a fleeting abode, while the Hereafter is a lasting abode. So, take from your fleeting [abode] that which will help you in your residence. Do not try to hide your secrets from the One from whom they cannot be hidden. Take your hearts out of this world before your bodies are taken out of it. Have you not seen and heard of what has continually accorded to those before you from the earliest nations and the past communities? Do you not see how their secrets were exposed, and how humiliation rained down on them? Their happiness, livelihood, and well-being were exchanged for indignation. I say this saying of mine, and I repent to Allah for myself and for you.
