to someone else for a paltry price.
- The treatise reads: “The entire religion revolves around these four principles: love and hate, and—arising from them—action and abstention, giving and withholding. Whoever perfects all of this for Allah’s sake has perfected faith; and whatever portion of it falls short of being for Allah’s sake returns as a deficiency in the servant’s faith.” ⦗36⦘
Ibn al-Qayyim says in al-Rūḥ (1): “The whole of religion turns upon four principles: love and hate, and—arising from them—action and abstention. Whoever’s love, hate, action, and abstention are for Allah has perfected faith… and whatever is lacking in any of these four categories results in a corresponding deficiency in his faith and religion.”
These samples, I believe, are sufficient to establish the point without adducing further examples.
Third: A comparison of certain phrases in the treatise with those found in Ibn al-Qayyim’s own works.
In the very first line after the basmala the treatise contains the expression “Allah is the One asked, the One from Whom response is hoped.” Did Ibn al-Qayyim employ this wording in any of his books?
This exact phrase appears in three of his works (2), while its opening segment occurs in numerous other places throughout his writings.
The same may be said of the phrases that close the treatise.