This subject has been treated at length elsewhere, where it is shown that the soul can attain neither deliverance, nor happiness, nor perfection unless Allah alone is the One it worships and loves—so that nothing is dearer to it than Him. For that very reason the divine scriptures abound in the command to worship Allah alone; indeed, the word ʿibāda (worship) itself unites perfect humility with perfect love. Thus, the worshipper must love the God he worships with complete love and humble himself before Him with complete humility. Whoever loves something without humbling himself to it has not worshipped it, and whoever submits to something without loving it has not worshipped it. Perfect love joined to perfect humility befits none but Allah alone. He, and He only, is the deity deserving of worship, a right that no one shares with Him. Such worship embraces perfect love, humility, veneration, honor, trustful reliance, and devotion.

Souls stand in need of Allah both inasmuch as He is their object of worship—the ultimate end of their quest and desire—and inasmuch as He is their Lord and Creator. Whoever believes in Allah, the Lord and Creator of all things, and worships none but Allah alone, so that Allah is dearer to him than anything else, more feared by him than anything else, more highly esteemed by him than anything else, and the One in whom he places his hope more than in anything else—indeed, whoever puts Allah on the same footing as any created being in love, loving it as he loves Allah, fearing it as he fears Allah, hoping in it as he hopes in Allah, and calling upon it as he calls upon Allah—then he is