ألم ترَ أن الناسَ ماتَ كبيرهم

Have you not seen that the elder of the people has died, and he was even before the mission of Muhammad's mission?

Neither a life of seventy years nor sixty availed him when he became exposed, unswaddled,

Into a dusty pit whose approach is loathed, save that it is the resting place of the lowly and the master.

And if the length of life could render anyone immortal and fend off from him the defect of a decrepit old age,

Then that which they went forth carrying would remain permanent, but no living soul is immortal.

We go and we return while destinies lie before us, setting up for us the trap of doom at every ambush.

And a jurist said to me, 'What do you prepare for what you see?'—and what he said was not refuted—

So I said to him, 'I have prepared for the resurrection and Him who willed it, that I bear witness to Ahmad,'

'And that there is no god other than my Lord, He who causes to die and gives life on the day of resurrection and a promised time.'

'This is what I have prepared, nothing other than it, even if you said to me, "Increase in good and add more."'

So he said, 'You have indeed held fast to all goodness; hold firmly to this, O Farazdaq, and you will be rightly guided.'