They are simply the means of gaining excellence and perfection, not the ends.

They are simply the means of gaining excellence and perfection, not the ends. They pave the way for prosperity and salvation but do not constitute salvation. The relationship between a preliminary and the main object is of two kinds. In certain cases the preliminary serves only as a prelude and after the object is achieved, its existence or nonexistence becomes immaterial. For example, a man wants to cross a water channel and for that purpose he puts a stone in the middle of it.

Evidently after he has crossed the channel, the existence or the non-existence of that stone is of no importance to him. The same is the case with the ladder used to climb to a roof and the mark-sheet of a class for the purpose of promotion to the next…