Although the vicissitudes of spiritual journey and twisty path to Allah appears full in splendor at each step, and displays enchanting views (through habitual presence and intuition) as well as joyful certainty and knowledge in the real world (and or at least in the form of true dreams) for the ascetic believers, but these splendors and views are the utmost when old God-seeking traveler reaches the final steps, and is at maturity age, because:

First: As per the verse:

يا أيها الانسان انک کادح الي ربک کدحاً فملاقيه

O Man! Thou art labouring unto thy Lord laboriously, and thou shalt encounter him. (Quran, The Rending, 84:6)

at these steps, he has suffered a great deal of hardship throughout the vicissitudinous path to meeting Lord as well as in defense of the Lord’s sanctuary and protection of His religion. Naturally, his share from the meeting Lord is more, and he receives more pleasure from watching the beauty of his beloved.

Second, his existential capacity and magnitude is higher and more than the past, and obviously, the territory of his being receives more blessings from the heavens.

Third, at this maturity age, he is a world of experiences, such as infidelity and ingratitude of the world’s people, corrective and awakening defeats, mirages:

کسراب بقيعه يحسبه الظمآن ماء

Their works are as a mirage in a spacious plain which the man athirst supposes to be water. (Quran, Light, 24:39)

and vanities:

ما الحياه الدنيا الا متاع الغرور

The present life is but the joy of delusion. (Quran, House of Imran, 3:185)

and the world's vain splendors from afar:

کل شيء من الدنيا سماعه اعظم من عيانه ...

Everything in the world looks greater than what it really is. (Behar, 8:191)

The experiences that he has deeply tasted and perceived in his or the others life. It goes without saying that the inevitable and natural requisite for such experiences is to separate from all of these transient mirages and pageantry, to abandon all worldly attachments, and to pay attention and relying upon the eternal and immortal darling:

کل شيء هالک الا وجهه

Everything perishes but Him.

Obviously, the above three factors (and some others) support, validate and intensify the truthfulness of dreams, rightness of presence and intuition, and ineffable joy of certainty and knowledge of the ascetic. There is no doubt that two things can be good mediums for this perfection, maturity, purity and clarity, one of which is the admonitions and advice.

The great deal of hardship and laboring suffered by the ascetic believer for revival of God's religion and the ideology of Prophet's Household, the more extensive existential capacity and severer separation achieved by him, entails sanity, wisdom and rightness that in addition to the reflection found in expression and writing of the ascetic believer in general (so that his prose becomes touching and contains messages, and his poetry becomes full of knowledge and wisdom, which will be explained later), it manifests in his advice and admonition in particular, and doubles the influence and impression of his advice. Since, his advice at this age arises from the heart honestly, earnestly, frankly and touchingly, it is free from any affectation or the verbal mannerism and the phraseology, difficult to be understood by the reader or listener.

Now, after this short introduction, if you want to perceive this fact, and just like the writer of these phrases, to varnish your worn soul with the flood of your tears, and quench your thirsty spirit with the clear heavenly fountain of an old ascetic, listen to the advice of our master carefully, phrase by phrase and line by line! Reading his “Book of Advice”, you may tread in the “path of proximity to God”, and observing “divine abstinence”, you may leave “material stations which are cheaper than what we think”! Do not neglect “role of experiences”, and engage in “compensation of mistakes”. Remember that “we shall take a new step every day”. Embrace tranquility and peace through “struggle with the temptation”! “Seek the main missing one!”, and eliminating selfishness, superiority complex, and egocentrism, remove “the great veil” from the eye of your soul! Finally, turning to “whispers of the lovelorn”, like the friends of Allah, express your poverty and full dependency to God! And refuting polytheism and hypocrisy, remove the last hindrance.

Derived from the book, “Half century of service to the Prophet's Household (a.s.)” (biography of Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi) by His Holiness Qodsi.

Book of advice

Many of the dear friends, particularly the youths, ask for an appropriate advice and admonition, to follow it as a light in their life, and pave their way to proximity to God (believing that we have trodden this path, and are aware of its mainlines, alleys, and dead-ends, and I wish it was so!) However, since there is a reply for any request, and specially, the request of the believers along with the truth and right path seekers, shall not be left unanswered, using the Quranic verses and utterances of The Infallible (a.s.) and the practices of the great men of religion, and my personal experiences in the life, I have written this summary. I demand all dear friends to remember me in benediction, as I always wish for their success.