Without piety man cannot traverse this way.

Without piety man cannot traverse this way. The Importance of Piety and Ways of Attaining It The significance of piety and the amount of emphasis which has been laid on it makes it clear that fundamentally religion, the sending of prophets and revealing of divine books have been so that human beings can find the way toward salvation and prosperity as well as traverse that path with diligent endeavor to attain the original goal of creation which is infinite divine mercy in the hereafter.

Therefore, the more effective piety is in attaining this goal, the more significant it is. In other words, because the reality of the prophetic mission and divine legal codes is showing mankind the way of salvation and prosperity and Allah, the Exalted, on account of His infinite mercy, has made it incumbent upon Himself to guide people, in the divine verses and that which has reached people by means of the saints [ awliya’ ] of Allah, effort has been made to train people in such a way that they act upon divine instructions, and because man’s deeds often spring from sensual origins, that is to say, man’s volitional deeds often arise from his desire and the bulk of his will is found in fear and hope, the prophets ( ‘a ) and their successors have made use of the method of awakening fear and hope in man and making him aware of the true goal of his creation.

After understanding the notion of piety [ taqwa ] and its significance, it is necessary to understand the ways of obtaining piety. We will briefly mention three ways of attaining piety: 1. One’s attitude about the future With attention to the fact that piety is the main provision for man’s eternal life, love of the self by way of foresight and the intellect’s judgment that man has to struggle for his future and attain that which is beneficial for his eternal life should be awakened.