and do not make the soul suffer for the body’s comfort! The soul’s delight and anguish are far greater and more enduring, whereas the body’s pleasure and pain are shorter-lived and easier to bear. Allah’s help is sought.

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The one who truly knows Allah does not bid people to abandon the world, for they cannot do without it. Instead, he bids them to abandon sins while remaining in their worldly pursuits; giving up the world is a virtue, but giving up sins is an obligation—so how can one be summoned to a virtue when he has not yet fulfilled the obligation?

If giving up sin is hard for them, then strive to endear Allah to them by recalling His favors, His blessings, His benevolence, His perfect attributes, and the qualities of His majesty, for hearts are innately disposed to love Him. Once they are attached to His love, forsaking sin, distancing themselves from it, and refraining from persistence in it become easy.

Yahya ibn Mu‘adh said, “An intelligent person’s pursuit of the world is better than an ignorant person’s abandonment of it.”

The knower of Allah calls people to Him from within their worldly lives, and so responding to him is easy for them; the ascetic calls them to Allah by asking them to leave the world, and responding to him is difficult. Weaning from the breast—when a person has known himself only as a suckling—is severe; yet choose the purest and finest of wet nurses, for milk influences the nature of the infant. Suckling from a foolish woman begets a foolish child, and the most beneficial nursing is that which comes after genuine hunger.

If you can endure the bitterness of complete weaning, then do so; otherwise, nurse in moderation, for there is a surfeit that can kill.