Imam Ali (as): The friends of Allah are those who look at the inward reality of the world while the other people look at its outer aspect; they busy themselves with its remoter benefits while the other people busy themselves in the immediate benefits. They destroy those things which they fear could ruin them, and they abandon here in this world what they believe would abandon them. They take the amassing of wealth by others as a small matter and regard it as a loss. They are enemies of those things which others love while they love things which others hate. Through them the Qur'an has been learnt and they have been given knowledge through the Qur'an. With them the Qur'an is staying while they stand by the Qur'an. They do not see any object of hope above what they hope in and no object of fear above what they fear. Nahj al-Balāgha