Imam Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah, in his book Ad-Da' wad-Dawa', said that surely sins are like the seeds of fruits that always bear like fruits. Some of our pious forefathers have said that indeed the punishment for committing a sin is that one is compelled to commit sin again, and the reward for doing a good deed is the guidance to follow that up with yet another good deed. This singular action of doing a good deed bears a series of good deeds and in turn one's profits multipy. Similarly bad deeds bring more bad deeds and begin to take shape and permanence in one's character.

If a righteous person were to leave a good deed, he/she would feel confined and constircted. Much like a fish out of water, the soul finds rest only in the tides of moral decency. So it is the same for the sinner, who finds comfort only in the familiarity and repetition of an old sin. He, too, feels the same sense of longing as the righteous person does. He/she sins not for the pleasrue that is derived from it, but to soothe the pain that being away from it brings.