If someone’s state does not lift you up
and his words do not lead you to Allah
– then do not keep his company!
It may be well that you are in a bad state –
but to keep company with someone worse than you
would allow you to see good in yourself.

No action from a heart without attachment is insignificant
No action from a heart full of desires is great
Good actions are the results of good states
Good states come from grasping the reality
of the stations where you alight.

Do not give up invocation of Allah
because you are not present with Allah in it.
It is worse to forget to invoke Him
than to be inattentive while invoking Him.
He might raise you up from invocation with heedlessness
to invocation with wakeful attention
and from invocation with full attention
to invocation with presence
and from invocation with presence
to invocation with withdrawal from all that is other than the Invoked.
That is not difficult for Allah.

–Ibn ‘Ata’Allah al-Iskandari