Shaykh Shah Wasiullah Allahabadi (Allah have mercy on him) said,’

These days people have restricted the religion to some external things, like clothes, external appearance of religious individuals, prayers and fasting, etc.  With these they consider themselves to be perfectly religious individuals. Whereas, from within they are just like the open or closeted sinners. They have their sinful morals (ikhlaq), dealings (ma’amlaat) and corrupt life style (ma’sharet). Even then they consider themselves to be religious. This is very strange, indeed. 

It is difficult to draw the attention of individuals towards the rectification of the inner self these days.

Initially an individual tries not to reveal his inner self (batin) to his mentor (Shaykh).However, if by virtue of his intuition the Shaykh recognizes the inner self’s corruption then this individual does not acknowledge it upfront and his lower self (nafs) tries to avoid (the blame).

However, when with proofs and examples of speech and actions committed by this individual over time it is shown to him that his inner self is as the diagnosis done previously only then he acknowledges it and pays attention towards its rectification.’

Taharet e qalb, page 81