And you shall find them the people most covetous of life and the idola- ters; any one of them would love that he might be given life for a thousand years; yet his being given life shall not budge him from the chastisement. God sees what they do. Love of life in this world is the result of heedlessness ghafla of God. The worst heedlessness is their excessive love to remain in this world. The state of the believer is the opposite of this. Those who are heedless and insolent are eager for life only because they know of their failure to be obedient. The runaway slave does not want to be returned to his master. But for believ- ers the transition [of death] to One from whom only good is expected is better than remaining with those against whose evil they are not secure. The prolonging of life in spite of the certainty of death holds no value for them since [death] comes unexpectedly and life is cut off. What is coming is near. When [one's] life span is completed there is no averting the assaults of the appointed time from the shoulders of hope fa-lā maradda li-hujūmi al-ajal ʿalā aktāfi al-amal.
