A person has to save himself from distractions. Why? Water keeps flowing onward unless a dam is placed in front. In the same way, spirituality unfolds naturally. In other words, intellectual development naturally happens as one's inner potential comes to the fore. وَلَوْ لَمْ تَمْسَسْهُ نَارٌ (24:35) If petrol is of good quality, it would catch fire even from afar. Spirituality unfolds naturally even though people are forcing it out of themselves. But distractions prevent the spiritual process from unfolding.

There are two kinds of distraction, lawful and unlawful. For example, adultery and wine are unlawful in Islam. The hadith says: لَا يَبْلُغُ الْعَبْدُ أَنْ يَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ، حَتَّى يَدَعَ مَا لَا بَأْسَ بِهِ، حَذَرًا لِمَا بِهِ الْبَأْسُ (Sunan Ibn Majah 4215) You have to save yourself even from some lawful things. We have to refrain from doing unlawful acts. For example, bait bazi was in vogue in our times. Bait bazi is a game in which I compose a line and you follow it with another rhyming line. We used to play this game of composing poems for hours. When I realized that this is a distraction, even though it is lawful, I suddenly left this habit. Our family members used to get together for this for hours. Distractions are of both kinds. But the result is the same.Unlawful distraction results in halting your development. Lawful distractions also lead to the same result.

According to the result, both are the same. A person who is sincere and has true concern must save himself from this just as he saves himself from illegal distractions. Otherwise, his intellectual development will come to a halt. His spiritual development will stop. This is what I have understood.