If it is said that the spiritual journeyer should be...

If it is said that the spiritual journeyer should be reticent and careful of what he eats, it is so that he would be able to hear the Divine afflatus, for if one desires to hear the inner voice, he must himself keep quiet. When one pledges allegiance to Satan, submitting to his temptations, his heart gradually metamorphoses into the dwelling of Satan, becoming his host; and this is a reality expressed by the Qur`an.[^2] The heart of a liar is the abode of Satan.

But he who is honest in his knowledge and is also faithful in the financial trusts that are made to him, the heart of such an individual is too pure to host Satan. Sin is a veil that prevents self-knowledge.

The human being forgets Allah (awj) as a result of his sins and this forgetting of Allah (awj) obstructs the acquisition of self-knowledge.[^3] When one capitulates to corruption, he has forfeited his life eternally and has enthralled himself, after which nothing, not even the flames of Hell, can emancipate, for although fire has the potency to melt metal, but if the metal is fiery, that is to say if it is fire solidified, then nothing can melt it.

Another entailment of sin is that the sinner is deprived from enjoying the pleasures of worship, and so he always wishes that he could enjoy his worship, but due to his sins and hardheartedness, he has extirpated the capacity of his heart [for such spiritual joys]. Shaykh as-Saduq narrates in his valuable work al-Tawhid that the eighth Imam, ‘Ali b. Musa al-Rida (ع) was on one occasion asked, “Why is Allah veiled?” in whose response, the Imam said, “He is not veiled.

That you do not see Him is due to the excess of your sins, which like a veil, blinds your heart to witnessing [Allah].”[^4] In the corpus of ahadith, the topic of the veiling of sins is abundantly treated. For instance, in one hadith, the Prophet (ص) is narrated as having said, “When one commits a sin, a black speck appears on his heart. If he disowns it and repents, his heart will be purified.

But if he repeats the sin, the spot spreads, until it overtakes the entire heart.”[^5] In another hadith, he is recorded as having said, “The excess of sins destroys the heart.” Imam Ja’far b. Muhammad as-Sadiq (ع) says, “There is nothing more destructive to the heart than sin. Sin affects the heart and eventually overwhelms it.”[^6] Another hadith related from the latter reads, “I advise you to be pious, to abstain from sin, and to be diligent in the course of worship.