Good Character Traits Can Fall Off

The shaikh, Dr. Muḥammad ibn Ghālib Al-ʿUmarī, may Allāh protect him, said:

If the string holding [the beads of] your [good] character traits tears apart, your [good] character traits are going to fall off, one after another.

Just as there are [some good] character traits that can be attained through effort, there are [others] that [can] go away, perhaps never to return before your death.

So do a check to make sure you still have them all from time to time, and tie them down firmly with the ropes of al-taqwá¹ and al-murāqabah² of Allāh.

And if something from them did fall off, then hurry in getting it back from the moment [you realize]–before it becomes [too] difficult for you, the time that’s lapsed [since you lost it] having become too long.

¹acting to protect oneself from Allāh’s punishment by avoiding sins of all kinds (tr.)
²fearing Allāh by having full certainty of His complete knowledge of everything we do in open and in secret (tr.)

Source: @m_g_alomari. 6 Mar 21.