(162) Abdullah bin
Omar relates that the Apostle of God once said to him, grasping his
shoulder with his hands: “Live in the world as if you were a stranger
or a wayfarer.”
-Bukhari
Commentary.-Just as a traveler does not consider an inn or a foreign
country his home, a truthful Believer should, also, not imagine the
world to be his real abode and believe as if he was going to live here
forever.
The design of life the Divine Apostles have preferred for mankind rests
upon the principle that man should treat his earthly sojourn to be purely
temporary and prepare ardently for Futurity as if he was actually seeing
it, or, rather, living in it. One’s life-falls in with the wishes
and teachings of the Prophets to the extent to which one succeeds in
producing this state within oneself, and those who fall short of it,
their life has nothing in common with the precepts taught by the Apostles.