Conversely...

Conversely, when one is careless with regards to religious duties, his submission and Mastership will be weak and flawed. Good end through Precautious Piety Safe guarding and protecting one's religion is called as Precautious Piety. Man should give the highest priority to protecting his own religion. For instance, when a valuable object is handed over to someone and he accepts responsibility for it, then what is that person's approach in safeguarding the object?

He is worried that if he performs even doubtful actions, his religion may come to some harm. He chooses to act in a manner that gives him satisfaction about the safety and security of his religion. Such a person is always careful about venturing in to doubtful places and takes utmost precaution under such circumstances. This is comparable to a person who passes by a steep cliff and keeps away from it, because he knows that every step towards the cliff is an invitation towards danger and peril.

So he distances himself from the cliff until he is satisfied that he will not fall into it. Therefore, Precautious Piety is like the string of a rosary (tasbeeh) which connects all the beads and prevents them from being scattered. So long as the thread is safe and secure, all the beads will be cohesive and interconnected. However, once the string breaks down, the beads will scatter instantly in all directions and the rosary will lose its very existence.

Imam Zainul Abedeen (a.s.) reveals الورع نِظامُ العِبادةِ. فاِذا انقطع الورع، ذهبت الديانة. كما انه اذا انقطع السلك اتبعه النظام. Precautious Piety is the like the string that unites all the acts of worship.

If Precautious Piety is severed, religion will vanish, just like all the objects attached to a string get scattered, if the string is severed.'[^3] Therefore observing the obligatory acts and refraining from the prohibited acts, which becomes possible with اجتهاد, should be glued together with the cohesiveness of ورع, so that it protects one's religion.