The Book of Wisdom Chapter X
And he said (May Allah be pleased with him):
89. Far be it for our Lord to recompense with credit the servant who deals with Him in cash.
90. Suffice it as a recompense to you for obedience that He has judged you worthy of obedience.
91. It suffices as a reward for the doers of good that He has inspired obedience to Him in their hearts and brought upon them the existence of His reciprocal intimacy (mu’aanasa).
92. Whoever worships Him for something he hopes for from Him, or in order to stave off the arrival of chastisement (al-‘uqooba), has not concerned himself with the real nature of His Attributes (bi-haqqi awsaafihi).
93. When he rives, He shows you His kindness (birr); when He deprives, He shows you His power (qahr). And in all that, He is making Himself known to you and coming to you with His gentleness.
94. Deprivation (al-man’) hurts you only because of the lack of your understanding of Allah in it.
95. Sometimes He opens the door of obedience for you but not the door of acceptance, or sometimes He condemns you to sin and it turns out to be a cause of arriving at Him.
96. Disobedience that bequeaths humiliation and extreme need is better than obedience that bequeaths self-infatuation and pride.
97. There are two graces (ni’mataan) from which no being can be separated and that is inevitable for every creature: the grace of existence (al-ijaad), and the grace of sustenance (imdaad).
98. He bestowed His grace upon you, first, through giving you being (bil ijaad), and, second through uninterrupted sustenance (bi-tawaali ‘l-imdaad).
99. Your indigence (faaqa) belongs to you essentially, for accidents do not abolish essential indigence: the trials that arrive in this word are but reminders to you of what you ignore of indigence.
100. The best of your moments is the one wherein you witness the existence of your indigence and, through it, arrive at the existence of your lowliness (dhilla).
101. When He alienates you from His creatures, then know that He wants to open for you the door of intimacy with Him.
102. When He loosens your tongue with a request, then know that He wants to give you something.
103. The imperative need (al-idtiraar) of the gnostic never vanishes, nor is his repose (qaraar) in anyone but Allah.
104. He illumined exterior phenomena (adh-dhawaahir) with the lights of His created things (aathaar); and He illumined the innermost hearts (as-sara’ir) with the uncreated lights of His attributes (bi-anwaar awsaafihi). For that reason, the lights of exterior phenomena set, whereas the lights of hearts (al-quloob) and of the innermost hearts (as-saraa’ir) do not set. That is why it is said, “Verily, the sun of the day sets at night, but the Sun of the hearts (shams al-quloob) never sets!”