Etiquette of Detachment from the World & Remembering Death (Az-Zuhd) in the Quran & Sunnah

1. The life of this world is only the play of diversion…

Allah says:

ٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَزِينَةٌ وَتَفَاخُرٌۢ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرٌ فِى ٱلْأَمْوَٰلِ وَٱلْأَوْلَـٰدِ ۖ كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ ٱلْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُۥ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَىٰهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَـٰمًا ۖ وَفِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرِضْوَٰنٌ ۚ وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَآ إِلَّا مَتَـٰعُ ٱلْغُرُورِ

Know well that the worldly life is but a play and an amusement, and a show of beauty, and exchange of boastful claims between you, and a competition of increase in riches and children. (All this is) like a rain, the growth of which attracts the farmers, then it withers, and you see it turning yellow, then it becomes straw. And in the Hereafter there is a severe punishment (for the disbelievers), and forgiveness from Allah and (Allah’s) pleasure (for the believers and the righteous). The worldly life is nothing but a material of delusion. (Surah Al-Hadid 57:20)

Play, diversion, adornment, boasting among yourselves, and rivalry in wealth and children — then the parable of the rain whose plants please the tillers, then wither, yellow, and crumble. The whole biography of the dunya in one verse.

2. “Every soul shall taste death.”

Allah says:

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ ٱلْمَوْتِ ۗ وَإِنَّمَا تُوَفَّوْنَ أُجُورَكُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ ۖ فَمَن زُحْزِحَ عَنِ ٱلنَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازَ ۗ وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَآ إِلَّا مَتَـٰعُ ٱلْغُرُورِ

Every soul has to taste death. It is on the Day of Judgement that you shall be paid your rewards in full. So, whoever has been kept away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has really succeeded. The worldly life is nothing but an illusionary enjoyment. (Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:185)

The most certain appointment is stated without decoration; and the verse completes it: you will be paid in full on the Day of Resurrection, and whoever is drawn away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise has truly succeeded.

1. “Be in this world as a stranger — or a traveller passing through.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ took hold of Ibn ‘Umar’s shoulder and said: “Be in this world as though you were a stranger, or a traveller on a road.” And Ibn ‘Umar used to say: “When you reach the evening, do not wait for the morning; and when you reach the morning, do not wait for the evening. Take from your health for your sickness, and from your life for your death.”

Lesson: The stranger does not build palaces in a land he is leaving; he keeps his bag light and his direction clear.

2. The world is the believer’s prison — and the disbeliever’s paradise.

“The world is a prison-house for the believer and Paradise for the non-believer.”

Lesson: The believer’s restraint in the dunya is not deprivation; it is the discipline of a man whose feast is elsewhere.

3. Remember often the destroyer of pleasures: death.

“Increase in remembrance of the severer of pleasures — meaning death.” And in Ibn Majah’s narration the command is the same: remember it frequently, for it cuts every pleasure at its root and returns every ambition to its size.

Lesson: Death remembered is not gloom; it is the scale on which every plan of the day is weighed honestly.