So if the cause itself hurts you, look to the joy, delight, and happiness contained in its outcome; enduring it will then seem light. And if you feel pain in giving up an unlawful pleasure, reflect on the pain that follows indulging in it, and weigh the two pains against each other.

The distinguishing trait of a sound mind is to secure the greater of two benefits by foregoing the lesser, and to bear the lesser of two pains in order to ward off the greater. This demands knowledge of causes and their consequences, and an intellect able to choose what is superior and more beneficial. Whoever is well endowed with intellect and knowledge will choose the better and prefer it; whoever is deficient in either—or in both—will choose the opposite. Anyone who thinks about this world and the Hereafter knows that neither is attained without hardship; let him, then, endure the hardship for the one that is better and more enduring.

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Allah has imposed upon each of the servant’s limbs a command and a prohibition; He has granted every limb a blessing, and through it He has placed a benefit and a pleasure. If the servant fulfills Allah’s command regarding that limb and avoids His prohibition, he has shown gratitude for the blessing it carries and has sought to perfect the benefit and pleasure derived from it. But if he neglects Allah’s command and prohibition in it, Allah will deprive him of its benefit and make it one of the chief sources of his pain and harm.

Likewise, at every moment of his life there is a specific act of worship that will advance him toward his Lord and draw him near. If he occupies that moment with the worship due to it, he moves forward; but if he spends it in desire, comfort, or idleness, he falls back. Thus the servant is always progressing or regressing—there is no standing still on the path at all.

Allah, the Exalted, says: “for whoever among you wishes to advance or to fall back.” (74:37)