O disciple, advice is easy-what is difficult is accepting it, for it is bitter in taste to those who pursue vain pleasures, since forbidden things are dear to their hearts. [This is] particularly so for whoever is the student of conventional knowledge, who is occupied with gratifying his ego and with worldly exploits, for he supposes that his knowledge alone will be his salvation and that his deliverance is in it, and that he can do without deeds and this is the conviction of the philosophers.
A Glory be to God Almighty! This conceited fool does not know that when he acquires knowledge, if he does not act on the strength of it, the evidence against him will become decisive, as the Messenger of God (God bless him and give him peace) said, 'The man most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection is a scholar whom God did not benefit by his knowledge."
It is reported that al-Junayd (may God sanctify his heart) was seen in sleep after he had died, and was asked, 'What is the news Abū'l-Qasim?' He said, 'Those expressions were wide of the mark, and those counsels came to nothing. Nothing was of benefit to me except some small prayers I made in the middle of the night.'
قُلْ إِنَّ صَلَاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلَّهِ
"Say: my prayer, my offering, my life and my death are for God."