—and part of it remains so smothered. Hence, when death arrives it is torn from his body as a skewer is dragged through wet wool. By contrast, the virtuous, pure and God-fearing soul (1)—one its owner has refined so that it rises, widens, is honored and ennobled—at the moment of death slips out of the body, flowing like a drop from the mouth of a waterskin (2) or like a hair drawn from dough.

Ibn ʿAbbās said:

“A good deed gives a light in the heart, a radiance on the face, strength in the body, expansion in provision, and love in people’s hearts; whereas an evil deed brings darkness to the heart, blackness to the face, weakness in the body, constriction in provision, and hatred in people’s hearts.” (3)

The Exalted says:

“The good land—its vegetation emerges by the permission of its Lord, but that which is bad produces nothing except meagerness.” [al-Aʿrāf 7:58]. This is a likeness of the miser and the generous giver.

And He says:

“So, whoever Allah wills to guide, He opens his breast to Islam; but whoever He wills to let stray, He makes his breast tight and constricted, as though he were ascending into the sky.” [al-Anʿām 6:125].