Travellers on the spiritual path such as Junaid Baghdadi know that their personal efforts, although indispensable, have less importance than the compassion of God.
Junaid said: Whatever I gained spiritually was through three practices : renouncing the world, fasting, and waking up the whole night.
A saint saw Junaid after his death in a dream, and asked him how God dealt with him. Junaid said, “He forgave me out of His mercy and not due to my spiritual practices. Except for the two rak-at [iterations] of prayers that I offered at midnight to my Lord, none served any good purpose for me here.”