its proper places and khidhlān in the places that suit it, for He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. No one is ever brought low except by squandering gratitude and neglecting neediness and supplication, and no one ever triumphs—by Allah’s will and His help—except through upholding gratitude and practicing sincere neediness and supplication.

The linchpin of all this is patience; in relation to faith it is like the head to the body—once the head is severed, the body cannot survive.

• No servant has been struck with a punishment more severe than hardness of heart and remoteness from Allah.
• Hellfire was created to melt hardened hearts.
• The heart farthest from Allah is the hard heart.
• When the heart hardens, the eye runs dry.

• Hardness of heart arises from four things when they exceed what is needful: eating, sleeping, speaking, and socializing.
• Just as food and drink are of no benefit to a sick body, exhortations are of no benefit to a heart made ill by desires.
• Whoever desires a lucid heart must prefer Allah to his own appetite.
• Hearts attached to passions are veiled from Allah to the same degree as their attachment.
• Hearts are Allah’s vessels on earth; the most beloved to Him are the most tender, the firmest, and the purest.
• They busied their hearts with the world; had they occupied them with Allah and the Hereafter, their hearts would have roamed through the meanings of His words and His manifest signs, returning to their owners with wondrous wisdom and rare benefits.