'Verily Allah, Blessed and most High, says, 'Verily from among My servants is he who asks Me to enable him to perform an act of obedience to Me in order that he may procure My love, but I however, withhold that from him in order that he does not come to feel proud of that action of his.'
Imam Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir [as]
al-Zuhd li al-Husayn b. Sa'id, p. 68, no. 179