Abu Shu’ayb—peace be upon him—said: "I have already told him this, my Master." The Master—exalted be his glory—said: "Speak, O Abu Shu’ayb." Abu Shu’ayb said: "Ishaq thinks that the span of eighty shirts is short. This is because the human shirt for the believer, in its advancement or delay, is only by deeds. Have you seen if you had slaves standing before you and you called them—would they all answer, or would one answer for them and suffice you, for your goal in gathering them was their obedience and acceptance of your command?" I said: "It is so, my lord."

Abu Shu’ayb—peace be upon him—said: "So it is with the entire world; the Master wanted nothing from them but obedience. Ishaq thinks that the eighty shirts were a short span, but eighty times forty is three thousand two hundred years, and seventy times forty is two thousand eight hundred years. This is a span that none regards as great¹ except one who does not know². For if the adversary does good to a believing man, feeding and watering him, or seeing him barefoot and providing him shoes, the Lord of the Worlds increases for him two or three shirts in humanity, which is his paradise. For the world is the believer's prison and the disbeliever's paradise, as the Lord Messenger—exalted be his glory—said. Likewise, if the believer does good to his brother, treats him kindly, and shows him affection, the Master decreases for him one, two, or three shirts by that deed and delivers him from that prison. Whoever humiliates his brother, strikes him, backbites him, or shuns him, God the Almighty increases for him shirts in which he must return. For the glory and paradise of the adversary are his shirts in humanity; when he exits them, he inhabits varieties of punishment in the state of metamorphosis. The humiliation and prison of the believer are his human shirts; when he is delivered from them, he is transferred to the place of purity and luminosity. The believer's humiliation in humanity, if he has a bad deed toward his brothers, prolongs his repetition within it; and for the adversary, by his [bad] deeds among the believers, his stay within it is prolonged."