One whose merits are attributed to Him fits to reside in the...

One whose merits are attributed to Him fits to reside in the abode related to Him. Since his neighbors in the said abode are friends of Allah, He has obligated him to adopt their mannerism. It is then that the Creator, Praise to Him, shall address his soul, which is now good and pure, having adopted such good and pure merits, saying, ‘O soul at rest and satisfied! Return to your Lord, well pleased and well-pleasing to Him! Enter, then, [your abode] among My devotees!

Yes, enter My heaven!’ (Qur’an, 89:27-30). These merits are numerous. The Imam (‘a) selected three of them in particular to be given preference, so much so that he described conviction as hinging on them: First : One has to keep his secret a secret because most people have shortcomings and are imperfect. But the attributes of perfection are so well known in their goodness, beauty and honor that people wish they have had them to adorn themselves by.

Since they run contrarily to what the nafs wants, and since people’s determination to oppose their nafs is weak, they feel reluctant to struggle to achieve the above. But when they find someone with the determination to adorn himself with them, they worry lest he, indeed, should acquire them and thus become superior to them.

Since the nafs does not wish to lag behind the peers, actually it by nature wishes to surpass them, these people will try by all means to stop him from achieving his objective with their actions, statements and tricks. One person cannot confront countless people. The One Who decreed the Shari`ah did not make a way for the believer to save himself from all of this except when one conceals his secret. He must not demonstrate what he is determined to achieve.

It is then that he will be spared the evil of people. He will then be able to stay connected with that path.

Since (‘a), the skilled doctors and the kind men of wisdom, know that the evil-insinuating nafs is also one of the believer’s enemies, belonging to the same category like those that stand to block his way, they (‘a) greatly commended the believer to conceal his secret, explaining to him that doing so is one of the attributes of the Lord whereby He praised Himself, and that conviction hinges upon it.

What is meant here is to suspend self-resisting [when listening to Satanic insinuations]: the inclination of the nafs to show-off.