At times the deed that is normally regarded as secondary may become superior, depending on a given person’s circumstances: he may be incapable of performing the higher-ranked act, or his love, desire, focus, and benefit from the lesser act may simply be greater. In such a case that act is better for him because of the additional effort, affection, resolve, and benefit that accompany it—just as a patient gains more from the medicine he longs for than from one he dislikes, even though, in itself, the latter might be the more potent remedy.

On this basis, dhikr can, at certain moments, be better for some people than reciting the Qur’an, while for others, at other times, recitation can be better than performing the formal prayer, and so on. The determinant is the extent of one’s benefit from the act, not its intrinsic rank in the general scale of deeds.