الامام السجاد علیه السلام: ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ لاَ تَزَالُ بِخَيْرٍ مَا دَامَ لَكَ وَاعِظٌ مِنْ نَفْسِكَ وَ مَا كَانَتِ اَلْمُحَاسَبَةُ مِنْ هَمِّكَ وَ مَا كَانَ اَلْخَوْفُ لَكَ شِعَارا وَ الْحَذَرُ دِثَارا

Imam al-Sajjad(as): O son of Adam! You will be in the right path as you have an advisor inside yourself, as long as you pay attention to self-examination, and as long as fear is your underwear and abstinece is your clothing. (Tuhaf al’Uqul, p.280)

Exposition:

Although no one is free from the need to be advised by others, the advice originating from one’s innermost is the best advise. This is because everyone is aware of his own characteristics and faults more than anyone else.

One’s attempts must be focused on self-examination. If other do not assess us, we must not give up assessing ourselves. Self-examination prevents us from future fautls.

“Fear” in this hadith means fearing God and His punishment as well as one’s own wrongdoing, not fearing people and flimsy powers.

Abstinence refers to discretion; it does not mean that one must be inactive; rather one must enter various fields of activity, but he must observe discretion and abstinence. This is the real meaning of piety.

Book: Hadith of Life, Published by: Tahseen.