Factors that Elicit Asceticism

Imam Ali (AS) said, 'The person best able to practice abstemiousness is he who understands the inferiority of this worldly life.

Imam Ali (AS) said, 'How can one renounce the pleasures of this world when he has not yet fathomed the worth of the Hereafter?!

Imam al-Baqir (AS) said, 'Remember death frequently, for no sooner does man increase his remembrance of death than he begins to renounce this world's life.

Imam al-Kazim (AS) once said while standing at a graveside, ‘Indeed something that ends with this [i.e. death] is worthy of its beginning being spent in abstemiousness. And indeed something that begins with this is worthy of its end being feared with apprehension.

Imam al-Aaskari (AS) said, 'If the inhabitants of this world used their intellect, the world would self-destruct [for it would cease to be of any importance].