Imam also invited believers to give up any habit which prevents moral excellence or becomes an obstacle towards sublime goals.
Imam has undertaken serious discussion in this regard in his famous book of “an exposition on Forty Hadith as following:
According to Imam, at this stage it is essential to remind you that each one of the qualities of the soul, both the good ones and the bad, has numerous grades and degrees.
Imam states that those who acquire virtues and give up vices are grouped with the urafa, saints and friends of God (awliya’ Allah.)
As for other individuals, the nature of vices and virtues is determined by the spiritual station to which they belong.
It may be that the qualities, which are considered to be vices for those belonging to higher spiritual station, are not considered vices for those belonging to a lower stage.
On the contrary, in a way, they may even be regarded as their accomplishments. And similarly the qualities that are regarded as virtues for the people of a lower category may be vices for men of a higher category.
Riya’ is also one of such (relative) vices that we are discussing presently.
Authenticity (ikhlas) is the highest stage of freedom from riya’ and is characteristic of the saints (awliya’ Allah); others do not share this quality.
The common people generally attain a lower stage of it, and this does not harm their iman or ikhlas, because, generally, they have a natural inclination that their virtues be known to others.
Though they may not have intentionally performed them for the sake of demonstrating them, but their self is instinctively inclined to make them known. This tendency does not annul their action, nor does it make them infidels, hypocrites (munafiqun) or polytheists either. But the same trait is considered to be a shortcoming in the case of a wali or ‘arif bi-Allah, as for them it amounts to nifaq or shirk.
Absolute purification from the impurity of polytheism and obtaining perfect authenticity (ikhlas) of devotion is essentially a primary, condition for attaining the stage reserved for awliya’ Allah, and there are even higher stages which they can attain, but, here, it would be out of place to go into these details.
Our Imams, the infallible successors of the holy prophet (PBUH) have declared that their worship was the worship of emancipated souls (ahrar), which was performed for the sake of love of God alone, neither due to the fear of hell nor in the hope of heaven; and they considered this stage to be the first step of their wilayah.
To them worship is a state of ecstasy and rapture which is beyond the reach of our imagination and understanding.