the All-Gentle, the All-Aware, the remedy through the hands of the physicians of creation: “So, whenever guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance shall never go astray nor be wretched.” 123 (Taha 20:123). The physician shielded them with the prohibitions, preserved their strength through the commandments, and purged their corrupt humors by means of repentance; thus well-being flowed in from every side.

So, you who have squandered that strength and failed to guard it, who have muddled your own illness, adopting no regimen and refusing to endure the bitterness of purgation—do not be surprised at how near destruction has drawn, for the malady is racing toward ruin!

Had destiny but assisted you, and you in turn helped the physician by refraining from a base desire, you would have attained every variety of delight and every form of coveted pleasure. Yet the vapor of passion has clouded the eye of insight, and you fancied that prudence lay in selling a promise for ready cash.

What a blind insight this is—shrieking at the thought of an hour’s patience while bearing the humiliation of eternity! It travels in pursuit of a world that is slipping away, yet sits idle when it comes to journeying toward the Hereafter to which it is inevitably bound.

When you see a man buying the paltry with the precious and selling the sublime for the trivial, know that he is a fool.

Section
• Because Adam’s essential servitude remained intact, the sin did not tarnish him.
• “Son of Adam! Were you to meet Me with sins filling almost the whole earth, and then meet Me without associating anything with Me, I would meet you with almost the same measure of forgiveness.” (1)
• When the Master knew that His slave’s sin had not been intended as an act of defiance against Him, nor as an insult to