And verily you know [that there were those among you who transgressed the Sabbath]: know that if mankind were neglected, abandoned and left to their own natures, they would have delved into and ensconced themselves in carnal pleasures and coverings of darkness because of their voracious appetite for and their being accustomed to these since infancy and childhood, until finally their preparednesses would disappear and they descend from the level of humanity and are transfigured, as God has said: Those whom God has cursed and with whom He is wroth, and some of whom He has turned into apes and swine [Q. 5:60]. But if they are guarded and kept in check by means of rational and divine rules as well as wisdoms, manners, admonitions containing the promise of reward and the threat of punishment, they can progress and be illuminated. As the poet says: Such is the soul: if neglected it clings to vileness, but if dispatched towards virtues it is resplendent. That is why devotions have been instituted and [why] they are obligated to repeat them at specified times, in order to remove from them thereby the filth of [human] natures that accumulates during moments of forgetfulness and in the darkness of distractions that appear at times of engaging in pleasures and committing of lustful acts, so that then their inner being might become illumined by the light of the Presence and their hearts be revitalised in orienting themselves towards [God] the Truth instead of falling and stumbling into the abyss of the capricious soul; and that it might find rest in the refreshment of the spirit and the love of the Oneness from the estrangement of caprice and attachment of multiplicity, as he [the Prophet] said: 'Between the [obligatory] prayer and the next there is expiation for the minor sins committed as long as the grave sins are avoided'. Do you not see that he commanded them [believers] to perform the purificatory wash when in a state of greater impurity from indulging in lustful acts; ablutions when in a state of minor impurity; and upon engaging in the activities of this world during the hours of daylight and night [he commanded them] the five [ritual] prayers that remove the filth of the five senses that accumulates in the soul as a result.
