But all these cannot be implemented unless the worships are...

But all these cannot be implemented unless the worships are performed cheerfully and actively, away from every sort of laziness and carelessness, so that a mood of affection and love towards remembering Allah, the Exalted, and the state of servitude, with familiarity and consistency, happen. Loving Allah and remembering Him is one of the great affairs, which is very much cared for by the people of knowledge, and is a subject of competition among the people of sulūk .

Physicians believe that if food is eaten with cheerfulness and gaiety, it will be digested much easier. Similarly, psychiatrists stress that if the spiritual nutrition is taken cheerfully and enthusiastically, and with avoiding laziness and affectedness, its effect will appear very quickly in the heart and the inner heart will be purified more quickly, too.

This discipline is referred to in the Glorious Divine Book, the upright Lordly pages, as it, in defiance of the disbelievers and the hypocrites, says: “ …And they do not come to the Salat unless they are sluggish, and they do not spend unless they are reluctant…” [^1] And the noble āyah : “ O you who believe! Do not approach the Salat when you are drunk…” [^2] The word “drunkenness” is explained in a hadīth to mean “sluggishness”. Some narratives refer to this discipline.

By relating some of them we shall give pride to these papers. Muhammad ibn Ya'qūb quoted Abū 'Abdullāh (Imām as-Sādiq) (' a ) to have said: “Do not force yourselves to worship.” [^3] Abū 'Abdullāh (as-Sādiq) (' a ) is (also) quoted to have said: “The Messenger of Allah ( s ) said: “O 'Alī, this religion is firm, get into it mildly, and do not cause yourself to hate worshipping your Lord.” [^4] Imām al-'Askarī (' a ) is quoted to have said: “When the hearts are active, confide in them, and when they are reluctant, bid them farewell.”[^5] This is a general instruction to deposit in your hearts any information you may when they are lively and gay, and leave them alone when they are restive.

So, in acquiring knowledge [ ma'ārif ] and sciences this discipline must also be applied, and the hearts must not be forced when they are irresponsive. It can be deduced from this and other Hadiths that there is another discipline, which is also an important chapter of asceticism.