People praise you for what they suppose is in you; but you must blame your soul for what you know is in it.
Interpretation
True self-awareness comes from within, not from external validation.
This quote emphasizes the importance of internal reflection over external opinions. While people may admire or praise us based on their perceptions, it is our own understanding of ourselves that truly matters, and we must hold ourselves accountable for our own qualities and actions, irrespective of how others view us.
In practice
In a personal development workshop, this quote can inspire attendees to focus on self-reflection.
Whosoever is determined to seek guidance and follow a path of right conduct must search for a shaykh from amongst those who have realization, one who follows a path methodically, who has abandoned his passions, and who has firmly established his feet in the service of his Lord.
Actions are but lifeless forms whose soul is the secret of sincerity in them
Extinction is the beginning of the path: it is traveling to God Most High. Guidance comes afterwards. What I mean by guidance is the guidance of God, as described by the Friend of God, Abraham: "Lo! I am going unto my Lord Who will guide me."
God Most High has said, "Is the reward of virtue aught save virtue?" . . . Know, O man, that the covenant of servanthood is incumbent upon you, and that the covenant of Lordship is incumbent upon His magnanimity, as He Most High has said, ". . . and fulfill your covenant, I shall fulfill My covenant."
. . . persist in that invocation until the unity of the world is subsumed for you in a single sphere, so that with the eye of your heart you will see naught in the two worlds save the One.
The most excellent of those who perform good deeds are those who most often remember God in all situations.
When asked for advice by beginners. Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the desert sands and never reach the sea.
There's a popular image of people who don't save for the future as lacking in self-control. But the reason saving is so hard has less to do with self-control and more to do with a scarcity of attention.
Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.
Sometimes skulls are thick. Sometimes hearts are vacant. Sometimes words don't work.
A man must thank his defects, and stand in some terror of his talents.
Whatever is done without ostentation, and without the people being witnesses of it, is, in my opinion, most praiseworthy: not that the public eye should be entirely avoided, for good actions desire to be placed in the light; but notwithstanding this, the greatest theater for virtue is conscience.
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