Spiritual Disease and Its Cure by Imam Shams-ud-Deen Muhammad bin Abi Bakr bin Qayyim AlJ awziyyah

Sins affect one's heart so it fails to glorify the Lord ~ and weakens its sense of tranquillity. If one's heart was filled with sobriety it would not have dared to commit any sin. Some deceived people say: "What induces me sometimes to commit sins is the hope of benefiting from Allah's Mercy, not the weakness of glorifying Him in my heart." This is simply self-deception; because glorifying Allah ~ in one's heart means glorifying His Sanctity, which would oppose the committing of any sins. Those who boldly indulge in disobeying Allah ~ do not consider Him with the correct estimation due to Him~. This is a punishment from Allah ~ which removes the sense of fear from the hearts of His Servants, so that sinners would despise hitn/her the way he/she disrespected the Commands of Allah ~ - People love another person according to his/her level of love for Allah ~ ; they fear hitn/her according to the level of his/her fear of Allah; they praise him/her according to the level of his/her praise for Allah ~. How could a person violate the sanctity of Allah ~ and not expect people to violate his/her sanctity? Allah ~ has stated in His Book (the Qur'an) the punishment due for sins. He ~ cast the big sinners into a state of disbelief for what they had earned. He ~ sealed their hearts with their sins, and forgot them the way they had forgotten their Lord. He ~ wasted them the way they had wasted His Religion. Allah ~ stated in His Book, after describing the prostration of all His Creatures to Him: (Whomsoever Allah disgraces, none can honour him)1; when they despised the act of prostrating to Allah ~ and refused to perform it, He ~ disgraced them; and no one could honour them after they had been humiliated by Allah ~-