"O man you are busy working for the world, and the world is busy trying to turn you out"
About this Quote
The intent is corrective, aimed at a community suddenly tasked with governing, expanding, and consolidating after the Prophet’s death. Abu Bakr, who carried the early caliphate through fracture and war, knew how quickly responsibility curdles into attachment. The line warns against confusing necessary labor with ultimate belonging. In a society pivoting from persecution to power, it’s a prophylactic against triumphalism: build what you must, but don’t let the building build you.
Subtextually, it also disciplines the ego. “Busy” repeats like a drumbeat, implying a mutual frenzy: human ambition racing alongside time’s indifferent schedule. The world’s “work” is decay, displacement, and the quiet rearrangement that makes every status temporary. That symmetry is the quote’s rhetorical engine: your industriousness mirrored by the world’s counter-industry.
It works because it refuses melodrama. No cosmic sermon, just a clear-eyed operational warning from someone who held authority and still spoke like it could vanish tomorrow - because it would.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bakr, Abu. (2026, January 17). O man you are busy working for the world, and the world is busy trying to turn you out. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/o-man-you-are-busy-working-for-the-world-and-the-41696/
Chicago Style
Bakr, Abu. "O man you are busy working for the world, and the world is busy trying to turn you out." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/o-man-you-are-busy-working-for-the-world-and-the-41696/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"O man you are busy working for the world, and the world is busy trying to turn you out." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/o-man-you-are-busy-working-for-the-world-and-the-41696/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









