and the frailty of the vessel to bear it, and real strength is for that inrushing grace (wārid) to do its work inwardly without showing on the surface; this is stronger and more lasting, for when it is put on display its effect is weakened and almost cut off.
Such is the ruling on the gasp when it issues from one who is truthful, for the person who gasps is either genuine, or a thief, or a hypocrite.

A Beneficial Principle
The root of both good and evil is reflection, for reflection is the starting point of will, resolve, detachment, renunciation, love, and aversion.
The most profitable reflection is to ponder the benefits of the Hereafter and the ways to obtain them, together with the harms of the Hereafter and the ways to repel them. These make four reflections, the noblest of all. Next come another four: reflecting on the benefits of this world and how to acquire them, and reflecting on the harms of this world and how to protect oneself from them. Around these eight divisions the thoughts of intelligent people revolve.
At the head of the first division stands reflecting on Allah’s favors and blessings, His commands and prohibitions, and the paths to knowing Him and His names and attributes through His Book, the sunnah of His Prophet, and whatever accords with the two. This type of reflection yields love and gnosis for its practitioner. When he then reflects on the Hereafter—its honor and permanence—and on this world—its baseness and evanescence—it produces in him a longing for the Hereafter and detachment from the world. Every time he reflects on the shortness of his hopes and the narrow span of time, that grants him seriousness, exertion, and the utmost diligence in seizing the moment.
Such reflections raise his aspiration, revive it after its death and lowness, and make him inhabit one valley while people dwell in another.
Opposite these are the base thoughts that roam in the hearts of most human beings: