O you who believe, do not let your wealth and your children distract you…from performing your religious duties on time. For whoever is distracted from the remembranceof God or His service (khidma) by some phenomenon, or something for the sake of his lust (shayʾan li-shahwatihi), [if then] he experiences [thereby] exultation (nashāṭ) in his devotions, he is deluded (makhdūʿ),ʿsave in [those religious duties] which God, Mighty and Majestic is He, accepts.It has been related that once [when he was ailing] Salmān was visited by Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ. Salmān wept, so Saʿd asked him, ‘What could be making you weep, O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, when our Master the Messenger of God was content with you when he died, and you will meet your companions again and will drink from his pool?’ Salmān said, ‘I do not weep out of fear of death or because of an avid attachment to the world, but rather because the Messenger of God enjoined on us a commitment and said: “Let the provision that one of you takes from this world be like the victuals a rider [traveller] (rākib) takes [for his journey].” I have all these cushions around me, but all the Prophet had around him was his blanket, his washing vesseland a bowl for food.’ Saʿd said: ‘O Abū ʿAbd Allāh! Enjoin on us a pledge to which we cancommit ourselves after you have gone.’ He said: ‘O Saʿd! Remember God, Exalted is He, when you have a concern that worries you, when you are making a judgement and when you are about to make an oath.’ But God, Exalted is He, knows best what is correct.His words, Exalted is He:
was content with you when he died, and you will meet your companions again and will drink from his pool?’ Salmān said, ‘I do not weep out of fear of death or because of an avid attachment to the world, but rather because the Messenger of God