Letters · To the governor of Basra upon learning that he had accepted an invitation to a lavish banquet

Translation

By Allāh, if you had been a visible personality and a body capable of feeling, I would have awarded you the penalties fixed by Allāh because of the people whom you received through desires and the communities whom you threw into destruction and the rulers whom you consigned to ruin and drove to places of distress after which there is neither going nor returning. Indeed whoever stepped on your slippery place slipped, whoever rode your waves was drowned, and whoever evaded your snares received inward support. He who keeps himself safe from you does not worry even though his affairs may be straitened and the world to him is like a day which is near expiring.

Verified published translation — published with the edition, reproduced verbatim.