intended to bid him farewell to return each to his house, he said to them: 'Come to me early tomorrow morning.' He returned to his house, and I was present with them. He seated them before him and said to them: 'Let each one of you tell me his story and inform me how his management of himself was in the matter of his world and his religion, and let the eldest among you begin.'
The eldest of his sons said to him: 'As for me, O my master, I was blessed in the harvest of all the estates and what I managed of the treasures, so I thésaurized and buried them in the earth, and I bought livestock. I am in prosperity, good state, and abundance of wealth.' He said to him: 'As for your world, it is in a most praiseworthy state. But what have you thésaurized for your hereafter? What have you thésaurized for your return? What have you thésaurized of the sciences, and to what place have you reached in degrees? What have you attained of knowledge, and how was your treatment of your brothers and your kindness to them?'
He said to him: 'O my master, the gathering of wealth distracted me from seeking knowledge, and what I saw of the negligence of my brothers prevented me from being kind to them. I knew that their greed for my kindness would throw them all upon me; great wealth would not sustain them, and they would not be content with little from me. So, I prevented them from my kindness and manifested my coldness to them.' He said to him: 'O my son, you have tired yourself and kept your eyes awake striving for the pleasure of one who does not benefit you, and you brought near those you do not know and left those who benefit you. Woe to what you have done and perish what you have thésaurized! It is as if you have not read the Quran or related the traditions. It is as if you doubted the word of Allah — Exalted Glory —: « And those who hoard gold and silver and spend them not in the way of Allah—give them tidings of a painful punishment. »1 and His saying, Exalted Glory: «As for him who gives and fears Allah, and believes in the