Ibn Qutaybah (1) said: “Every creature that pants does so only from weariness or thirst—except the dog, for it pants when exhausted and when rested, when its thirst is quenched and when it is parched. Allah therefore set it up as a parable for this unbeliever: if you admonish him, he is astray; and if you leave him alone, he is still astray—just like the dog which, whether you drive it away or let it be, continues to pant.

This comparison does not apply to every dog, but specifically to the dog that is forever panting, the vilest and most repulsive kind of all.

Section

Such is the state of the scholar who prefers the life of this world to the Hereafter.

As for the ignorant worshipper, his affliction arises from turning away from knowledge and its rulings, and from the dominance of his imaginings, personal tastes, ecstatic feelings, and the whims of his soul.

For that reason Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah and others said: “Beware the trial of the depraved scholar and the trial of the ignorant devotee, for their trial is a temptation for every person susceptible to misguidance.”

Through his ignorance the latter bars people from knowledge and its requirements, while through his transgression the former calls them to debauchery.

Allah, exalted is He, struck a likeness for the second type when He said: “Like Satan when he says to a human being, ‘Disbelieve!’ but when he has disbelieved, he says, ‘I disown you; I truly fear Allah, Lord of all worlds.’ So the end of both of them is that they will be in the Fire, abiding therein, and that is the recompense of the wrongdoers” (16–17; Sūrat al-Hashr).

His story is well known (2), for he laid the foundation of his affair upon worshipping Allah in ignorance,