and his eagerness for it is even fuller; whereas a cool, indifferent soul that feels none of this, though it, too, seeks what is higher, pursues it in a vastly different way. Do you not see that one who walks (1) to his beloved over burning coals and thorns is greater than one who rides (2) to him on fine mounts? Thus the person who prefers his Beloved while his own self is still pulling him elsewhere is not like the one who prefers Him when his self offers no resistance. Accordingly, Allah tries His servant with sensual desires: they may become either a curtain that veils him from his Lord, or a screen that ultimately leads him to Allah’s pleasure, nearness, and honor.

The fourth group: people who know the path of evil, religious innovation, and disbelief in detail, yet know the path of the believers only in outline. This is the condition of many who busy themselves with the doctrines of other nations and the teachings of the innovators: they learn those thoroughly, but what the Messenger brought they grasp only in general terms—although a few particulars may be clear to them. Anyone who looks into their writings will see this firsthand.

Likewise, a person deeply acquainted with the detailed ways of wrongdoing, injustice, and corruption—having practiced them—when he repents and returns to the path of the righteous, his knowledge of those evil ways remains merely general; he no longer knows their intricacies as does someone who spent his life navigating them.

The point is that Allah loves the path of His enemies to be known so that it may be avoided and detested, just as He loves the path of His allies to be known so that it may be loved and followed. In such knowledge lie benefits and secrets that none but Allah truly knows—among them the recognition