O man greedy for reward in the hereafter and the performance of deeds entitling you to that reward! There have been certain prophets who had only a limited following but received the infinite reward of the sacred duty of prophethood. The true achievement lies, then, not in gaining a vast following, but in gaining God’s pleasure. What do you imagine  yourself to be, that saying, “Let everyone listen to me,” you forget  your  function,  and  interfere  in  what  is  strictly  God’s  concern?  To  gain acceptance for you and to have people gather round you is God’s concern. So look to your own duty and concern, and do not meddle with God’s concerns.

Moreover, it is not only men who earn reward for those who hear and speak the

truth. The sentient and spiritual beings of God and His angels have filled the universe and  adorned  its  every part.  If  you  want  plentiful  reward,  take  sincerity as  your foundation and think only of God’s pleasure. Then every syllable of the blessed words that issue forth from your mouth will be brought to life by your sincerity and truthful intention, and going to the  ears of innumerable sentient beings, they will illumine them and earn you reward. For when, for example, you say, “Praise and thanks be to God,” millions of these words, great and small, are written on the page of the air by God’s  leave.  Since  the  All-Wise  Inscriber did  nothing  prodigally  or  in  vain,  He created innumerable ears, as many as were needed to hear those  multiple blessed words. If those words are brought to life in the air by sincerity and truthful intent, they will enter the ears of the spirit beings like some tasty fruit in the mouth. But if God’s pleasure and sincerity do not bring those words to life, they will not be heard, and reward  will  be  had  only  for  the  single  utterance  made by the  mouth.  Pay good attention  to  this,  you  Qur’an  reciters who  are  sad  that  your voices are not  more beautiful and that more people do not listen to you!

FOURTH CAUSE

In just the same way that rivalry and disagreement among the people of guidance do not  arise from failure to foresee consequences or from shortsightedness, so too wholehearted  agreement  among  the  people  of  misguidance  does  not  result  from farsightedness or  loftiness  of vision.  Rather  the  people  of guidance,  through  the influence of truth and reality, do not succumb to the blind emotions of the soul, and follow  instead  the  farsighted  inclinations  of  the  heart  and  the  intellect.  Since, however, they fail to preserve their  sense  of direction and their sincerity, they are unable to maintain their high station and fall into dispute.