This concerns one point of the verse, "The (human) soul is certainly prone to evil (12:53)," and the Saying the meaning of which is, "Your worst enemy is your soul."

One who loves himself if his evil-commanding soul has not been purified-will love no one else. Even if he apparently loves someone, he does not do so sincerely, but only for the pleasure of it and the benefits he receives. He always tries to make himself liked. Also, he does not ascribe faults to himself; he defends and exonerates himself like a lawyer. He praises himself, exaggerating and even lying, showing himself to be free of fault, as though sanctifying himself, and according to his degree receives a slap from the verse, "Who takes as his god his desires (25:43, 45:23).

His self-praise and efforts to make himself liked have the reverse effect, for he attracts contempt and is treated coldly. He also loses sincerity in his actions, which look to the Hereafter, and they become mixed with hypocrisy. He is defeated by the emotions and desires of the soul, which are blind to the consequences, do not think of results, and are obsessed with present pleasure; he serves a year's prison sentence because of one hour's pleasure demanded by his emotions which have lost their way. He pays ten years' penalty on account of one minute's pride or revenge.