In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

All praise is for Allah; we seek His help and His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and the consequences of our deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomever He allows to stray, none can guide. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, without partner, and we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. May Allah bless him, his family, and his Companions, and grant them peace.

To proceed: These are concise remarks about the heart’s actions—what the masters call the “stations” (maqāmāt) and “states” (aḥwāl). They are among the foundations of faith and the pillars of the religion: loving Allah and His Messenger, relying on Allah, devoting the religion sincerely to Him, thanking Him, being patient with His decree, fearing Him, hoping in Him, and everything that follows from these.

Someone among the people of faith to whom Allah has given a right over me asked that I record these points in writing, and each of us is in haste. So I say:

All these actions are, in principle, obligatory for every accountable creature, by unanimous agreement of the leading scholars of the religion. People, with respect to them, fall into three ranks, just as they do with bodily acts of worship: (1) the wrongdoer to himself, (2) the moderate, and (3) the foremost in good deeds.

• The wrongdoer to himself is the sinner who neglects a command or commits a prohibition.
• The moderate is the one who fulfills the obligations and avoids the forbidden.
• The foremost in good deeds is the one who draws near through whatever obligatory and recommended acts he can, while shunning the prohibited and the disliked.

Even so, both the moderate and the foremost may have sins that are wiped away by repentance—“Allah loves those who repent and He loves those who purify themselves”—or by good deeds that erase them, or by calamities that remind them, or by other means. Both groups—the moderates and the foremost—are among the friends of Allah (awliyāʾ) mentioned in Sūrah Yūnus: “Behold! Truly, the friends of Allah are those who believe and are mindful of Him.” They, however, divide into the general—the moderates—and the elite—the foremost. The foremost occupy the highest ranks, like the prophets and the ever-truthful (ṣiddīqūn).

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) referred to these two categories in the ḥadīth recorded by al-Bukhārī from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him):

“Allah says: ‘Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I have declared war upon him. My servant draws near to Me with nothing more beloved to Me than the duties I have prescribed for him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with voluntary deeds until I love him. When I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Through Me he hears, through Me he sees, through Me he strikes, and through Me he walks. Were he to ask of Me, I would surely give him; were he to seek My protection, I would surely protect him. And there is nothing about which I hesitate more than taking the soul of My believing servant: he dislikes death, and I dislike to distress him.’”