When a person’s heart is diseased in any aspect of his life—even if the sickness of a particular limb escapes your notice—it is enough to know that a corrupted root must inevitably taint its branches. Whoever reflects on this will grasp something of the wisdom God has sent down. Indeed, one whose heart is ill may waver over an injunction simply because it entails contravening others, the benefit of which he cannot discern; or he may suppose that such a command resembles the edicts of kings and rulers who seek worldly supremacy. By my life, prophethood is the pinnacle of dominion—God grants it to whom He wills and withdraws it from whom He wills—yet it is a dominion whose sole purpose is the rectitude of those servants who obey the Prophet, in both their worldly lives and their ultimate return.

The reality is this: every deed and affair of the unbeliever contains a flaw that prevents it from conferring perfect benefit. Were any of his matters sound in every respect, he would deserve reward in the Hereafter; but all his concerns are either corrupt or deficient. Praise, then, belongs to God for the blessing of Islam—the greatest of blessings and the fountainhead of every good—as our Lord loves and is pleased.

It is therefore clear that merely differing from them is itself an objective of the Law in general. For this reason Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, along with other leading scholars, grounded their rulings on this very principle