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From this we understand that, above every other necessity, Allah’s servants urgently need to know the Messenger and what he brought, to believe what he reported, and to obey what he commanded. There is no path to happiness and success, either in this world or in the Hereafter, except through the messengers. Only through them can one know in detail what is pure and what is impure, and only through them can Allah’s pleasure ever be attained. What is pure in deeds, words, and character is nothing other than their guidance and what they brought. They are the authoritative standard: all words, deeds, and character are weighed against their words, deeds, and character. Following them distinguishes the rightly guided from those astray.

The need for them is greater than the body’s need for its soul, the eye’s need for its light, and the soul’s need for its life. Whatever necessity or need one might imagine, the servant’s need for the messengers far exceeds it. What, then, do you think of one whose guidance and message, if absent from you for the blink of an eye, leave your heart corrupted, like a fish taken out of water and placed in a frying pan? Such is the servant’s condition when his heart parts from what the Messenger brought—indeed, it is worse. Yet only a living heart can feel this, for “a wound causes no pain to the dead” (1).

Since happiness in both abodes depends on the Prophet’s guidance—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—everyone who sincerely seeks his own good and desires his salvation and happiness must learn enough about the Prophet’s guidance, life, and affairs to cease being among those ignorant of him and to be counted among his followers, supporters, and party. In this, some acquire little, others much, and others are deprived altogether. Bounty is in Allah’s hand; He grants it to whom He wills, and Allah is the Lord of immense bounty.