“Hold yourselves to account before you are held to account, and weigh yourselves before you are weighed.”

Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ibn al-Mubarak both record this in their books on renunciation, and in Ibn al-Mubarak’s version it goes on: “for that is easier on your reckoning … and get ready for the Great Display,” the Day nothing about you will be hidden (69:18). Ibn al-Mubarak’s chain is openly hearsay — “it reached me that ‘Umar said” — and al-Tirmidhi cites it with “it is reported from ‘Umar,” beside the hadith that the wise one is he who calls himself to account and works for what comes after death.