“I knew people who were more tight-fisted with their lifetimes than with their dirhams and dinars.”

Al-Hasan al-Basri (21–110 AH / 642–728 CE) grew up in Madinah among the Companions, and “I knew people” is how he often speaks of that generation. ‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak records this in his al-Zuhd wa’l-Raqa’iq right after another saying of al-Hasan on the same subject: “Son of Adam, beware of putting things off: you have your today, not your tomorrow.”