(The chain from reflection to fear: inner preparation for God)
The means to reflection is emptiness [desirelessness], and the buttress of emptiness is abstinence. The completion of abstinence is precaution, and the door to precaution is fear.
If he drinks a cup of this drink, he will never prefer any other state to this nor any other moment to this. He will prefer this to every act of obedience and devotion, since it contains intimate conversation with the Lord without any intermediary.
Let your inward truth be veiled in awe of God, and let your outward truth be veiled in obedience.
(Guarding the self: focus on your own faults, not others’)
Do not expose anyone’s faults when God has concealed worse things in yourself. Occupy yourself with your own faults, and overlook matters and situations which do not concern you. Beware lest you exhaust your life in other people’s actions and exchange your irreplaceable endowed wealth with someone else, thereby destroying yourself.
himself with obeying God, with recognizing his own faults and leaving alone whatever might devalue faith in God, he is spared ruin and is immersed in the sea of God’s mercy, attaining the gems and the benefits of wisdom and clarity. But as long as he forgets his own wrong actions, is ignorant of his own faults, and falls back on his power and strength, he will never be successful.
Both of these things weigh heavily on the self to keep it from obedience, and they harden the heart from reflection and humility.
Let your obedience to God overpower your wrongdoings and seek help from Him while you sleep, fasting until the morning prayer, since if you are awakened at night, Satan whispers to you, ‘Sleep again, you still have a long night,’ for he wants you to miss the time of intimate contemplation and exposure of your state before your Lord. Do not be distracted in seeking forgiveness at dawn, for at that time there is much yearning for those in devoted supplication.
The Prophet said, ‘The intention of the believer is better than his action,’ and also, ‘Actions are by intentions, and every man will obtain what he had intended.’
(The heart hardened by excess food and desire)
There is nothing more harmful to the believer’s heart than having too much food, for it brings about two things; hardness of heart and arousal of desires.
The Messenger of God said, ‘The believer eats to fill one stomach, and the hypocrite seven.’ And elsewhere, ‘Woe to people who are swollen in two places!’ When he was asked what they were, he replied, ‘The stomach and the genitals.’ Jesus said, ‘The heart does not have any worse disease than hardness, and no soul has been more weakened than by lack of hunger. They are two halters of banishment and disappointment.’
(Satan’s hold broken only by constant remembrance of God)
Satan can get control over God’s servants only by whispering to them when they have abandoned their remembrance of God, become disdainful, feel complacent when faced with His prohibition, and forget that God sees their secret. Whispering is what comes from outside the heart by tacit permission of the intellect, and is sustained by man’s own nature; once it becomes established in the heart, there is error, misguidance, and disbelief. God called on His bondsmen with His subtle call and told them about the enmity of Iblis: Shaytan is an enemy to you, so take him as an enemy. (35:6) Be with him like a man who, standing near the shepherd’s dog, has recourse to the dog’s master in order to keep the dog away from him. It is the same when Satan comes to whisper to you, to lead you off the true path and make you forget to remember God. Then seek refuge from him with your Lord and his Lord. He will defend the truth against falsehood, and help wronged ones, since He says: Surely he has no authority over those who believe and who rely on their Lord. (16:99)
However, anyone who neglects to spend his time in awareness must undoubtedly be the prey of Satan. He should draw a lesson from what Satan does with such a person’s self: he leads it to misguidance, deception and haughtiness by duping the person into admiring his own actions, his worship, and his insight.
Therefore hold to the firmest rope of God, which means seeking refuge with God, and having a sound need of God at every breath. Do not be deceived when Satan makes your acts of obedience appear beautiful in your eye: if he opens ninety-nine doors of goodness for you, it is only so that he may overcome you by opening the hundredth. So meet him with opposition, block his path and reject his charm.
(The stations of prayer: bowing and prostration as nearness to God)
The bondsman of God does not truly bow (in ruku`) but that God adorns him with the light of His radiance, shades him in the shade of His greatness and clothes him in the garment of His purity. Bowing is first and prostration (sujud) is second: there is courtesy in bowing, and in prostration nearness to God.
The person who does well in his prostration is never far from God; while the person who shows ill-courtesy and neglects to honor Him because his heart is attached to something other than God in the state of prostration will never come near to Him.
He created you a slave and commanded you
to worship Him with your heart, your tongue and your limbs. Realize your enslavement to Him by His lordship over you. Know that the forelocks of creation are all in His hand. Creatures possess neither breath nor sight except by His power and will: they are incapable of bringing forth the least thing in His kingdom, unless it is by His permission and will.