Then press on from where the people press on, then press on towards the outer forms of devotion and obedience, and all of the duties ordained by the obligations and transactions of the Law, 'from where' meaning from the station from which all people press on [to engage in these devotions] and be like any one of them. Al-Junayd [of Baghdad], God's mercy be upon him, was once asked, “What is the endḍ”. He said, “The return to the beginning”; and seek God's forgiveness, against the soul's manifesting itself and becoming weary of its state and its tyrrany. The Prophet said, “Verily my heart is overcome [by the temptations of the soul] and I so seek God's forgiveness seventy times a day”. And he said, “O God, establish me firmly upon your religion” and he was asked about [why he would say] this, to which he replied, “What [else] would give me security given that the likeness of the heart is as a feather in an open expanse which the winds turn about as they wish”. And when his feet became swollen [from the exertions of prayers], ʿĀÌisha, may God be pleased with her, said to him, “Has not God already forgiven your sins past and futureḍ”, to which he said, “Should I not then be a grateful servantḍ” The Commander of the Believers [ʿAlī], “I seek refuge with God from misguidance after guidance”.
