Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Shurayh the Judge said: One day Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) said to his companions while admonishing them: "Be ever watchful for the appointed times of death, and meet death with beautiful deeds (act so that you give up your soul while performing a good deed); do not incline toward the treasures of wealth, for they will leave you at the mercy of deceitful hopes. Indeed, the world is deceitful, throws one to the ground, is cunning, treacherous and bewitching; its streams glitter and its fruits are ripe; its outward is joy and its inward is deception; it devours you with the teeth of hopes and destroys you with the ruin [brought about] by grievous events. The children of death (human beings who will ultimately meet death) fix their aspirations upon it, choose its adornment, and seek its rank and station. Man is ignorant, and it is for this reason that he is attached to the pleasures of the world and delighted by its joys, and considers himself safe from its faithlessness. The world revolves around you with its vicissitudes and hurls at you the arrows of its deaths; the world uproots your souls, and yet you gather for its sake; you come into the world in order to die (that is, the end of your affair in this world is death), and you are moved on toward the graveyard, and you lay your head upon the dust, and are handed over to the worms [inside the grave], and are raised up for [the Day of] Reckoning. O you who possess the power of contrivance, planning and thought, and who are informed of great tidings! Remember the death of the fathers. How soon it is that your souls will be seized, your bodies stripped bare, and your possessions divided! And you, O [human being] of dignity, awe and beauty, will set out for the abode of disorder and distress, and for a dust-covered dwelling, and will lie upon your cheek in your grave; in a dwelling whose visitors are few and whose workmen are weary and heavy-hearted; until you come forth from the graves and are raised up toward [the plain of] the Resurrection. So if your end [in the world] is sealed with felicity, you shall come [on the Day of Resurrection] into joy and gladness, being a sovereign whose command is obeyed, at ease and without fear or anxiety. Continually [in Paradise] youths like pearls circulate around you 'بِکَأْسٍ مِنْ مَعِینٍ * بَیْضاءَ لَذَّةٍ لِلشَّارِبِینَ [With a cup from a flowing spring — white, delicious to the drinkers]' (al-Saffat 45–46). The people of Paradise are immersed in blessings in it, and the people of the Fire are in torment in the Fire; the people of Paradise take pride in themselves in garments of fine silk and brocade, and the people of the Fire are turned over and over in a blazing, flaming Fire; the skulls of the former are filled with the musk of the Gardens, and the latter are struck with maces of fire; the former embrace the houris in bridal chambers, and around the necks of the latter, in the Fire, are thrown collars like rings, with chains; in the hearts of the people of the Fire is a terror that has left the physicians helpless, and a disease that accepts no medicine. O you who are handed over [in the grave] to the worms and are offered up to them as a gift! Take a lesson from what you hear and see, and say to your eyes to shun the pleasure of sleep and to pour forth tears continuously, one after another; your house is the grave, a house full of terrors and grief, and the end of your affair is death. O human being whose modesty is little, who are heedless and who turn away from those who admonish and inform, listen! The Day of Resurrection has been appointed as the Day of Disclosure and Questioning, of reward and punishment; a day on which the deeds of people are returned to Allah and all sins are counted; a day on which [from the intensity of terror and dread] the sockets of people's eyes melt [and flow], and every pregnant woman lays down her burden upon the earth, and separation falls between every person and his beloved, and amidst those terrors the intellects of the wise become bewildered and confounded — [that] day when the earth, after [passing through] an era of being flourishing, is [all at once] transformed, and after its dazzling splendor for created beings changes its face, and brings forth from the hidden mines its heavy burdens and surrenders to Allah the load it bears; a day on which effort and striving are of no benefit; at the moment when the created beings face intense terror they bow their heads in submission, and the criminals are recognized by their faces and become manifest; the graves, after long being sealed and hidden, are split open, and souls, by [the aid of] means, are surrendered to Allah; the veil of the Hereafter is lifted [from before the eyes of people] and its tidings are made manifest to people; at that time 'دُکَّتِ الْأَرْضُ دَکًّا دَکًّا [the earth is crushed, crushing upon crushing]' (al-Fajr 21), and the earth is stretched out, stretch after stretch, for the affair intended for it, and those raised up move toward Allah with great difficulty, and created beings proceed slowly toward [the plain of] the Resurrection, and the criminals are turned back on their heels with force; woe to you, O human being! [For at that moment] the matter becomes exceedingly grave, and human beings are brought forward one by one for reckoning; 'وَ جاءَ رَبُّکَ وَ الْمَلَکُ صَفًّا صَفًّا [And your Lord comes and the angels, rank upon rank]' (al-Fajr 22), and Allah questions them about their deeds letter by letter; human beings are brought with their bodies bare, 'خُشَّعاً أَبْصارُهُمْ [their eyes downcast]' [from the intensity of terror], before them is the Reckoning and behind them is Hell whose roar they hear and the tongues of whose fire they see; at that time they find neither helper nor friend to save them from that humiliation; then they run swiftly toward the halting-stations of the Resurrection while being driven in groups; 'السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ [the heavens are folded in His right hand]' (al-Zumar 67), 'کَطَیِّ السِّجِلِّ لِلْکُتُبِ [as the rolling up of a scroll for writings]' (al-Anbiya 104), and the servants upon [the bridge of] al-Sirat — their hearts tremble and they suppose that not one of them will be delivered; and they are not permitted (al-Mursalat 36) to speak, and no excuse is accepted from them so that they might apologize; a seal is placed upon their mouths, and their hands and feet speak of the deeds they used to do (al-Nur 24). Woe to that hour whose [various] moments grieve the hearts! At the moment when separation falls between the two groups — 'فَرِیقٌ فِی الْجَنَّةِ وَ فَرِیقٌ فِی السَّعِیرِ [a group in Paradise and a group in the Blaze]' (al-Shura 7) — from [the events of] such a day let those who would flee, flee, and if the eternal abode is the other abode, [then] let the doers act for the like of it."