In this passage of Kashf al-Mahjub, Hujwiri distills the practice of erasing self-directed motives (اغراض نفسانی) from the heart into a precise doctrine. He argues that whenever a carnal purpose enters an action, its blessing (barakat) departs and the heart is bent away from the straight path into crookedness and distraction. He then poses a dilemma with only two outcomes: either the self's desire is fulfilled, which is the person's ruin, since the key to Hell is nothing but the attainment of the nafs's wishes; or it is denied, which becomes the person's deliverance, since the key to Paradise is nothing but withholding the self from its desires. He grounds this in the Quranic verse restraining the soul from its craving so that the Garden becomes its refuge. Sincerity, on this view, means that the servant acts in every deed solely for God's pleasure and the soul's rescue from punishment, not for the fortunes and vanities (رعونات) of the self.