‘Abū Jaʿfar (a) said to me, ‘O Jābir, take this world as you would a place where you have arrived and then wish to depart from on the very same day, or as wealth that you have earned in your dream and when you awake there is nothing of it in your hand. And when you are at a funeral, then be as though it is you who is being carried [to your grave] and as though you are the one who is asking his Lord to send him back to the world so that you may work [and perform the deeds] like those who are living, for indeed to the learned, this world is like the shadow [that soon passes].”