• Junayd said: “I once visited a young man who asked me about repentance. I answered him. Then he asked, ‘What is its reality?’ I replied, ‘That you keep your sin constantly before your eyes until death overtakes you.’ He exclaimed, ‘Enough! That is not the true essence of repentance.’ So I asked, ‘And what, young man, is repentance in your estimation?’ He said, ‘That you forget the sin.’ Then he left me and went on his way. [Someone present] asked, ‘What do you say, Abū al-Qāsim?’ I answered, ‘The young man has spoken aright.’ He asked, ‘How so?’ I replied, ‘When I am with Him in one state and He transfers me from a state of estrangement to one of fidelity, for me to recall the estrangement while enjoying the fidelity is itself estrangement.’ (1)

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Sincerity cannot dwell in a heart that loves praise, craves applause, and lusts after what people possess—no more than water can coexist with fire, or a desert lizard with a fish.

Therefore, when your soul urges you to seek sincerity, first confront covetousness and slaughter it with the knife of despair; then turn to praise and applause and renounce them with the same disdain that the devotees of this world show toward the Hereafter. Once you have firmly slain covetousness and renounced praise and applause, sincerity will come easily to you.

You may ask, ‘What will help me slaughter covetousness and renounce praise and applause?’

I answer: As for slaughtering covetousness, it is made easy by knowing with absolute certainty that every object of desire lies in treasuries held by none but Allah alone. No one else owns them, and no one can grant a servant any share of them except Him.