Thus, the reward of following the message is credited for...

Thus, the reward of following the message is credited for us, and we benefited from it: "Say: 'I ask no reward of you : It is in sour interest.: My reward is due only from Allah'" (Qur'an, 34:47). How can we, the poor ones, do them a favor, and what a great benefit do we reap from being sincere to them?! What favor do you vest upon the scholars of the nation, upon the scholar who explains the difficult issues and the rulings, or upon the honored Prophet, or upon the Holy One, the most Great?!

Each person, according to his level and station, leads us towards the path of guidance. Indeed, we owe them so much, too much to be able to reward them in this world, the world that is not at all suitable for rewarding them. Indeed, to Allah, to His Messenger, and to His friends belongs the favor lust as the Almighty has said: "Say: 'Do not count your Islam as a favor to me. Nay! Allah has conferred a favor on you when He guided you to the faith, if you are true and sincere.

Truly Allah knows the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and Allah sees well all that you do'" (Qur'an, 49:17-18). If we are truthful in our claim of belief, the favor belongs to Allah for having guided us to thus believe. Allah sees what we do not, and lie knows the images of our deeds, of our belief, of our submission to Him in the world of what is unknown to us.

As for us, the poor ones, we know none of the truth, so we learn from the one who is knowledgeable about them and feel indebted to him, and we follow the scholar and feel indebted to him, and we offer congregational prayers behind the scholar and feel indebted to him, although we owe them without knowing it. Hence, when we feel that we arc the ones who do them a favor, such feeling turns our deeds upside down, hurling them into Sijjeen, rendering them to an utter loss.

THE SECOND LEVEL OF PRETENSION From what we have stated, it is learned from our greatest professor and best teacher of ethics. Imam al-Khomeini, may his shade be prolonged, that the above-stated level of pretension occupies in the principles of beliefs the first, the most intense and the ugliest of all. As for the second level of pretension, it lies in tHe virtuous demeanors and the commendable ethics.

It, too, according to what is stated by the imam, may his shade be prolonged, has two stations: The first is that a person demonstrates the commendable characteristics and the virtuous demeanors in order to attract people's hearts towards him.