or something Allah has actually commanded, yet he performs it for the sake of his own desire and not for Allah. Such matters are among the many diseases that lurk within souls. A person may detest one thing and, on that account, come to detest many other things on the strength of nothing but conjecture and imagination; likewise, he may love one thing and, for its sake, love many other things through mere fancy and illusion. One of their poets said:

‘I love, for her sake, the dark-skinned folk so much
that, for her sake, I even love dark-haired dogs.’

He supposed his beloved to be dark-skinned, so he came to love blackness itself—even in dogs. All of this is a sickness in the heart’s perception and will. We ask Allah to heal our hearts of every ailment, and we seek refuge in Him from reprehensible morals, capricious desires, and destructive diseases.

The heart was created solely to love Allah Most High. This is the natural disposition (fiṭrah) upon which Allah has fashioned His servants, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Every newborn is born upon the fiṭrah; then his parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or a Magian—just as an animal gives birth to a sound-limbed young one; do you see it born with any mutilation?” Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) then said, “Recite, if you wish: ‘So set your face toward the religion, inclining to the truth—the fiṭrah of Allah upon which He has created humankind; there is no altering Allah’s creation’ (al-Rum 30:30).” Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

Thus Allah, exalted be He, has instilled in His servants a disposition to love Him and worship Him alone. If that fiṭrah is left free of corruption, the heart will know Allah and love Him exclusively. The fiṭrah, however, is spoiled by the heart’s own maladies—just as parents make the child a Jew or a Christian. All of this alters the fiṭrah with which Allah created him, though it happens by Allah’s decree and predestination, just as the body may be changed through mutilation. Yet the fiṭrah can return when Allah facilitates for someone who strives to restore it.

The messengers—peace be upon them—were sent to confirm and perfect the fiṭrah, not to alter or overturn it. When the heart loves Allah alone and devotes the religion sincerely to Him, it is never tried by love for another, let alone by infatuation. Whenever it is afflicted by infatuation, that is because its love for Allah alone is lacking.

For this reason, when Joseph loved Allah and devoted his religion purely to Him, he was not afflicted by that trial; rather, Allah said: “Thus did We avert from him evil and indecency; he was indeed one of Our chosen servants” (Yusuf 12:24). By contrast, the wife of the minister—and her people—were idolaters, and therefore she was struck by infatuation. No one is tried by such passion except because of a deficiency in his monotheism and faith.

A heart that turns back to Allah and fears Him possesses two qualities that repel infatuation. One is its return to Allah and its love for Him, for that is sweeter and more delightful than anything else, leaving no creature’s love to vie with it. The second is fear of Allah, for the fear that opposes infatuation drives it away. Whoever loves something—whether with infatuation or without—will abandon that love for the sake of something he loves more if the two compete, and he will abandon it out of fear of a harm that is more hateful to him than the object of his love is dear.