in essence by the heart alone, or by both heart and body together; rather, He has made it obligatory that we call upon Allah, confide in Him, speak to Him, and address Him with these very words, so that the obligation is fulfilled in both form and meaning—by the heart and by every limb.

He joins these two comprehensive principles—worship and reliance—whether in obligatory commands or in non-obligatory ones, in many passages. He says at the end of Surah Hud: “So worship Him and rely on Him” (Hud 123). The righteous servant Shuʿayb said: “My success is only through Allah; upon Him I rely, and to Him I turn” (Hud 88). Abraham and those with him said: “Our Lord, upon You we rely, to You we return, and to You is the final destination” (Al-Mumtahanah 4). And He, Exalted is He, said—commanding His Messenger to proclaim: “Thus have We sent you to a community before whom many nations have passed, that you may recite to them what We have revealed to you, while they deny the All-Merciful. Say: He is my Lord; there is no god but He. Upon Him I rely, and to Him I repent” (Al-Raʿd 30).

He therefore ordered His Prophet to say: “Upon the All-Merciful I rely, and to Him I repent,” just as He commanded him in His words: “So worship Him and rely on Him” (Hud 123). A command addressed to him is a command to his community, and His charging him with these two principles in the Mother of the Quran and elsewhere is likewise for his community, so that their performance of them constitutes obedience to Allah and compliance with His order, without their venturing ahead of Allah and His Messenger. For this reason, most of what our Prophet ﷺ and the purest of his community practice—whether supplications, acts of worship, or anything else—is only by a directive from Allah, unlike those who act without having been commanded, even if the act is good or merely permissible. This is one of the causes that established his merit and the merit of his community over all others,