But if the influx is weightier than the supererogatory deed, prudence requires him to stay with the influx until it withdraws, for the influx slips away, whereas the optional act does not. This is an area that demands an extra measure of jurisprudential insight into the Path, the hierarchy of works, and the rule of giving precedence to the most important and then the next most important. Allah is the One who grants such success; there is no deity but Him and no Lord besides Him.

Section
The root of every blameworthy trait is arrogance, ignobility, and baseness.
The root of every praiseworthy trait is humility and loftiness of aspiration.
Hence vainglory, insolence, wantonness, self-admiration, envy, transgression, swagger, oppression, hardness of heart, tyranny, turning away, refusing good counsel, selfish hoarding, seeking superiority, love of status and leadership, and the desire to be praised for what one has not done—all of these arise from arrogance.
As for lying, meanness, treachery, showing off, scheming, deception, greed, panic, cowardice, miserliness, incapacity, laziness, debasing oneself before anyone but Allah, preferring the inferior to the better, and the like, all of them spring from ignobility, baseness, and a lowly soul.
Conversely, the noble qualities—patience, courage, justice, magnanimity, chastity, integrity, generosity, forbearance, forgiveness, pardoning, tolerance, altruism, a soul too noble for base acts, humility, contentment, truthfulness, sincerity, repaying kindness with its like or better, overlooking people’s slips, avoiding what does not concern one, and keeping the heart free from those blameworthy qualities—every one of these comes from humility and loftiness of aspiration.