The fragility of comfort

 بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

يَا صَاحِبِي لا تَغْتَرِرْ بِتَنَعُّمٍ

فَالْعُمْرُ يَنْفَدُ وَالنَّعِيمُ يَزُولُ

وَإِذَا عَلِمْتَ بِحَالِ قَوْمٍ مَرَّةً

فَاعْلَمْ بِأَنَّكَ عَنْهُمْ مَسْؤُولُ

وَإِذَا حَمَلْتَ إِلَى الْقُبُورِ جِنَازَةً

فَاعْلَمْ بِأَنَّكَ بَعْدَهَا مَحْمُولُ

Meaning: 

My friend, don’t be fooled by comfort and ease—

life runs out, and every ease fades away

And if you ever come to know the state of other people, even once,

know that you’ll be held to account for them.

And when you carry a funeral bier to the graves,

know that one day you too will be (similarly) carried.

Language:

Arabic

Transliteration:

Yā ṣāḥibī, lā taghtarr bi-tanaʿʿum;

fa-l-ʿumru yanfadu wa-n-naʿīmu yazūl.

Wa-idhā ʿalimta bi-ḥāli qawmin marratan,

faʿlam bi-annaka ʿanhum masʾūl.

Wa-idhā ḥamalta ilā l-qubūri janāzatan,

faʿlam bi-annaka baʿdahā maḥmūl.

Brief Explanation:

These lines circulate in the adab/raqāʾiq tradition as a short “zuhd” piece embedded in the anecdote of Hārūn al‑Rashīd’s ascetic son, known in biographical literature as “ولد الرشيد المعروف بالسبتي” (the “Sabbātī,” i.e., the one who worked on Saturdays). In Ibn al‑Jawzī’s retellings of the story he explicitly warns that storytellers embellished it with “impossible” additions—so the core anecdote is early, but some poetic/legendary details can be later accretions.

1) In al‑Yāfiʿī, Rawḍ al‑Riyāḥīn fī Ḥikāyāt al‑Ṣāliḥīn, he transmits the story of the “Sabbātī” and, at the moment of his death, places three couplets on his tongue

2) In Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī, Rūḥ al‑Bayān fī Tafsīr al‑Qurʾān (tafsīr on al‑Kahf 18:8), we can find that he quoptes essentially the same anecdote while commenting on “وَإِنَّا لَجَاعِلُونَ مَا عَلَيْهَا صَعِيدًا جُرُزًا,” but he quotes only the two couplets  (he omits the middle one).

There is also a  key “variant cluster” that circulates outside the “Sabbātī / son of Hārūn” story, paired with different lines. For example, al‑Qurṭubī cites it (anonymously: “وأنشدوا…”) together with:

وَإِذَا وُلِّيتَ أُمُورَ قَوْمٍ لَيْلَةً … فَاعْلَمْ بِأَنَّكَ بَعْدَهَا مَسْؤُولُ

وَإِذَا حَمَلْتَ إِلَى الْقُبُورِ جِنَازَةً … فَاعْلَمْ بِأَنَّكَ بَعْدَهَا مَحْمُولُ

يَا صَاحِبَ الْقَبْرِ الْمُنَقَّشِ سَطْحُهُ … وَلَعَلَّهُ مِنْ تَحْتِهِ مَغْلُولُ

If, (even)for one night, the affairs of a people are placed in your hands,

remember: after that, you will be answerable.

If you carry a body to its grave,

remember: one day, you will be the one carried.

You whose tomb is adorned with carved stone—

perhaps below it rests one bound in chains.

That matters because it shows the “جنازة / محمول” bayt has an independent life in the admonition literature—so when it shows up inside the “Sabbātī” anecdote, it may be borrowed/attached rather than securely “his.”