ابن آدم! إنّك لاتزال بخير ما كان لك واعظ من نفسك وما كانت المحاسبة من همّك وما كان الخوف لك شعاراً والحذر لك دثاراً
Part of the sermons of Imam Sajjad (AS):
O Adam’s descendant, you will stay in goodness as long as you listen to the advice of your inner voice, as long as you consider it as one your important priorities to hold yourself accountable for your own deeds, and as long as you use fear [of Allah] as your motto and abstinence as your clothing.
(Tohfatul Oqul, p. 280)
Nobody is free from the need for advice given by the others. However, our inner voice provides us with the best advice because people know their characteristics and faults better than anybody else. We must try our utmost to assess ourselves. Just because others fail to assess us, does not mean that there is no need for us to assess ourselves. Evaluation prevents the occurrence of future mistakes. Khawf, here, refers to fear of Allah, His retribution and man's bad deeds and not to fear of people and paper tigers. Hadhar, in this tradition, is used in the sense of caution, not avoidance. Therefore, it does not mean that one should stop working. On the contrary, it means that one should enter various arenas, but he should always be cautious, which is the essence of taqwa (piety, virtue, awareness or reverence of God).