O soul: If you detest punishment, then guard against lapses and beware of them; avoid error and cast it away. And if you prefer reward, then be guided toward correctness.

Know that the aims of the soul in all its meanings lead to two states: error and correctness. Error will never fail to yield punishment and loss, and correctness will never fail to yield profit and reward. For if it were not so, then error would yield reward and correctness would yield punishment—and this is something that the intellect cannot accept, nor is it found in the witnessing of the senses.

Therefore, it has become a necessary certainty that error truly yields punishment.

O soul: Indeed, by your inclination toward the Intellect, your light is strengthened, and you perceive correctness with your vision. But by your deviation from the Intellect and your attachment to the senses, you lack the intellectual light; thus you become dark and weak, becoming coupled with error due to your blindness and obscurity.

O soul: Truly, the physician commands the sick person not to eat what harms him. If he obeys, he acts correctly, and this correctness yields for him recovery and health. But if he disobeys, he errs, and this error yields for him sickness and pain.