Fifth: So long as a nation remains humiliated and subdued, unwilling to demand its rights, neither its religious life nor its worldly affairs can stand on sound footing.

Sixth: Natural fear of other human beings does not conflict with faith nor annul it, as we see in the fears that afflicted the mother of Moses and Moses himself.

Seventh: Faith rises and falls in degree. Allah says, “so that you might be among the believers” (Q 28:10); the faith referred to here is its increase and the growth of inner reassurance.

Eighth: One of the greatest blessings Allah bestows on a servant is to keep him firm when anxieties and fears surge. Such steadiness not only heightens his faith and reward, it enables him to speak and act correctly, with clear judgment and settled thoughts. Whoever is denied this firmness, on the other hand, is so agitated and alarmed that his thinking collapses, his mind goes blank, and he can do himself no good in that moment.

Ninth: Although a believer knows that Allah’s decree and predestination are true and that His promise is unfailingly fulfilled, he must still make use of the beneficial means available to him, for taking those means is itself part of Allah’s decree. Allah had promised the mother of Moses that her child would be returned to her, yet when Pharaoh’s household picked him up she still took action: she sent his sister to follow the child and used every measure suited to the situation.

Tenth: It is permissible for a woman to go out to attend to her needs and to speak with men when no prohibited circumstance is involved, just as Moses’ sister did, and as the two daughters of the man of Midian did.

Eleventh: It is permissible to accept payment for guardianship and nursing, as the mother of Moses did, for the law revealed to those before us remains binding upon us unless our own law explicitly abrogates it.