Quote by Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari: “Your delay in responding to His call is evidence of your love for yourself.”

This quote critically links hesitation in answering a divine call to self-centeredness. It implies that true devotion requires immediate and selfless obedience, putting God's will before personal desires and demanding true commitment to the spiritual path.

Another challenging aphorism from *Kitab al-Hikam*, pushing the seeker to examine their motives and commitment on the spiritual path, contrasting self-love with divine love as a measure of sincerity.

Egyptian Sufi scholar and author born around 1250 in Alexandria, whose Hikam (Book of Aphorisms) is one of the most treasured works in Sufi literature, read and memorised across the Islamic world to this day. He was a leading figure of the Shadhili Sufi order.