They are your fore-runners in reaching the goal and have...

They are your fore-runners in reaching the goal and have arrived at the watering places before you. They had positions of honour and plenty of pride. They were rulers and holders of positions. Now they have gone into the interstice where earth covers them from above and is eating their flesh and drinking their blood. They lie in the hollows of their graves lifeless, no more growing, and hidden, not to be found.

The approach of dangers does not frighten them, and the adversity of circumstances does not grieve them. They do not mind earthquakes, nor do they pay heed to thunders. They are gone and not expected back. They are existent but unseen. They were united but are now dispersed. They were friendly and are now separated.

أُولئِكُمْ سَلَفُ غَايَتِكُمْ، وَفُرَّاطُ مَنَاهِلِكُمْ، الَّذِينَ كَانتْ لَهُمْ مَقَاوِمُ الْعِزِّ، وَحَلَبَاتُ الْفَخْرِ، مُلُوكاً وَسُوَقاً، سَلَكُوا فِي بُطُونِ الْبَرْزَخِ سَبِيلاً سُلِّطَتِ الاْرْضُ عَلَيْهِمْ فِيهِ، فَأَكَلَتْ مِنْ لُحُومِهِمْ، وَشَرِبَتْ مِنْ دِمَائِهِمْ، فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي فَجَوَاتِ قُبُورِهِمْ جَمَاداً لاَ يَنْمُونَ، وَضِماراً لاَ يُوجَدُونَ، لاَ يُفْزِعُهُمْ وُروُدُ الاْهْوَالِ، وَلاَ يَحْزُنُهُمْ تَنَكُّرُ الاْحْوَالِ، وَلاَ يَحْفِلُونَ بِالرَّوَاجِفِ، وَلاَ يَأْذَنُونَ لِلْقَوَاصِفِ، غُيَّباً لاَ يُنْتَظَرُونَ، وَشُهُوداً لاَ يَحْضُرونَ، وَإِنَّمَا كَانُوا جَمِيعاً فَتَشَتَّتُوا، وَآلاَفاً فافْتَرَقُوا، Their accounts are unknown and their houses are silent, not because of length of time or distance of place, but because they have been made to drink the cup (of death) which has changed their speech into dumbness, their hearing into deafness and their movements into stillness.

It seems as though they are fallen in slumber. They are neighbours not feeling affection for each other, or friends who do not meet each other. The bonds of their knowing each other have been worn out and the connections of their friendship have been cut asunder. Everyone of them is therefore alone although they are a group, and they are strangers, even though friends. They are unaware of morning after a night and of evening after a day.

The night or the day when they departed has become ever existent for them. [^2] They found the dangers of their placed of stay more serious than they had apprehended, and they witnessed that its signs were greater than they had guessed. The two objectives (namely paradise and hell) have been stretched for them upto a point beyond the reach of fear or hope.

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