Know - may God have me, and you, understand what the pathway of His friends is, and may He have me, and you, take the path of the pure! -that the way must necessarily entail a break from one's habits (harq al-'awā`id), the acquisition of valuable traits (iktisāb al-fawā`id), and struggle against individualist tendencies (ijtihād al-nufūs), so that you might enter into the Holy Presence.

"How is a break with habits going to take place for you if you can not manage to break the habits of your soul?" "If there were no domains of souls (mayādīn al-nufūs), no traveler would make the voyage."

The men of the elite are only distingulshed from normal men by the battle they wage against their individual soul. The most tenacious of the habits that must be torn away from the soul are [love of] glory and [of] wealth, such that glory is changed into humility and wealth into poverty. Humility and poverty are two monumental doors for gaining access to God and attaining His Presence.
Abū Yazīd, via an interior voice, was addressed by God in the following words: "O Abū Yazīd! Our stores are filled with acts of obedience (khidma); come to Me through the small door of humility and dependence (iftiqār)!" ...