Salih b. `Isa b. Ahmad b. Muhammad al-`Ijli narrated to us. He said: Muhammad b. Muhammad b. `Ali narrated to us. He said: Muhammad b. al-Faraj al-Rowyani narrated to us. He said: `Abdullah b. Muhammad al-`Ijli narrated to us. He said: `Abd al-`Athim b. `Abdullah al-Hasani narrated to me from his father from Aban the slave of Zayd b. `Ali from `Asim b. Bahdala. He said: Shurayh the Judge said to me:

I bought a [luxurious] house with eighty gold coins. I wrote a letter and had two just witnesses testify to it. So, Amir al-Mu’minin `Ali b. Abi Talib was told about that, so he sent his client Qanbar to me, and I gave it to him. When he visited me, he said: O Shurayh! You bought a house, you wrote a letter, you had two just witnesses testify to it, and you measured the money? He said: I said: Yes. He said: O Shurayh! Fear Allah, for one [angel] will come to you who will not look at your letter, nor ask for your evidence; and he will take you out of your house and deposit you wholly into your grave. So, make sure that you have not bought this house from other than its rightful owner, and that you have not measured unlawful money, or else you will have lost both abodes together: this world and the Hereafter. Then, he said: O Shurayh! If you had come to me when you had bought this house, I would have written a letter on this sheet, and you would not have even bought it for two silver coins. He said: I said: What would you have written, Amir al-Mu’minin? He said: I would have written this letter to you: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. This is what was purchased by a lowly slave from a mortal that is ready to depart. He bought a house in the Abode of Vanity, from the side of mortals to the garrison of the perished ones. This house has four barriers: (1) its first barrier is destruction, (2) its second barrier is impairment, (3) its third barrier is calamity, (4) and its fourth barrier is caprice that leads to Satan the deceiver. Then, there is the door that is the opening of the house. This deceived person purchases this with wishful thinking from one who is pursued by death. He withdraws from the splendour of being content with modest needs. The buyer does not understand what he has bought at all. He is afflicted with what afflicted the bodies of kings and he is cursed with what cursed the oppressors; like Khosrow, Caesar, Tubba`, Himyar, and all who amass wealth upon wealth and go on increasing it, building high houses and decorating them, collecting treasures and preserving them. According to their own thinking, they claimed these things for children to take them to the place of accounting and judgement and the position of reward and punishment. When the verdict will be passed, “those who stood on falsehood would then be at a total loss.” (40:78) This document is witnessed by the intellect when it is free from the shackles of desires, and safe from the attachments to this world, and hearing of the voice of asceticism as it calls: “How clear is the truth for one with eyes!” Surely, one’s journey is of two days, so increase in your righteous deeds and unite your hopeful expectations with the reality of imminent death, for the journey is dwindling and diminishing.”