وَمَا عَنْ طُولِ عَهْدِهِمْ، وَلاَ بُعْدِ مَحَلِّهِمْ، عَمِيَتْ أخْبَارُهُمْ، وَصَمَّتْ دِيَارُهُمْ، وَلكِنَّهُمْ سُقُوا كَأْساً بَدَّلَتْهُمْ بِالنُّطْقِ خَرَساً، وَبِالسَّمْعِ صَمَماً، وَبِالْحَرَكَاتِ سُكُوناً، فَكَأَنَّهُمْ فِي ارْتِجَالِ الصِّفَةِ صَرْعَى سُبَات، جِيرَانٌ لاَ يَتَأَنَّسُونَ، وَأَحِبَّاءُ لاَ يَتَزَاوَرُونَ، بَلِيَتْ بَيْنَهُمْ عُرَا التَّعَارُفِ، وَانْقَطَعَتْ مِنْهُمْ أَسْبَابُ الاْخَاءِ، فَكُلُّهُمْ وَحِيدٌ وَهُمْ جَمِيعٌ، وَبِجَانِبِ الْهَجْرِ وَهُمْ أَخِلاَّءُ، لاَ يَتَعَارَفُونَ لِلَيْل صَبَاحاً، وَلاَ لِنَهَار مَسَاءً.
Their accounts are unknown and their houses are silent, not because of length of time or distance of place, but because they have been made to drink the cup (of death) which has changed their speech into dumbness, their hearing into deafness and their movements into stillness. It seems as though they are fallen in slumber. They are neighbours not feeling affection for each other, or friends who do not meet each other. The bonds of their knowing each other have been worn out and the connections of their friendship have been cut asunder. Everyone of them is therefore alone although they are a group, and they are strangers, even though friends. They are unaware of morning after a night and of evening after a day.