Allah the Exalted says, “The Bedouins are stronger in unbelief and hypocrisy and more likely to be unaware of the limits that Allah has sent down to His Messenger” (Qur’an, 9:97).

Accordingly, the most even-handed of people is the one who both knows and observes the limits that govern conduct, deeds, and prescribed acts of worship.

And success comes only from Allah.

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Abu al-Dardaʾ (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “How excellent is the sleep of the intelligent and their breaking of the fast! With it they out-profit the night-vigils and fasts of fools, and an atom’s weight from a person of taqwa (God-consciousness) is better than worship the size of mountains from those who are deluded (1)!”

This statement is a veritable jewel, clearly showing the depth of the Companions’ understanding and their precedence over all who came after them in every form of goodness—may Allah be pleased with them all.

Know, then, that the servant traverses the stages of the journey to Allah with his heart and his aspiration, not with his body, and that true taqwa is the taqwa of hearts, not of limbs.

Allah says, “Such is the case; and whoever venerates the symbols of Allah—indeed, that arises from the piety of hearts” (22:32).

And He says, “Their flesh and their blood will never reach Allah, but what reaches Him from you is taqwa” (22:37).

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Taqwa is here,” pointing to his chest (2).