fall the rulings of his Master and His decrees, for in truth he is His property and His slave. Thus Allah steers him by His creational decrees just as He steers him by His religious commands; the servant is therefore the very arena in which these rulings run their course.
• A lack of divine success, unsound judgment, the obscuring of truth, corruption of the heart, obscurity of reputation, the squandering of time, people’s aversion, estrangement between the servant and his Lord, the blocking of answered supplication, hardness of heart, the erasure of blessing from one’s provision and lifespan, deprivation of knowledge, the garment of humiliation, the upper hand granted to the enemy, constriction of the breast, being tried with evil companions who ruin the heart and waste time, protracted worry and grief, a straitened livelihood, and a gloomy mind—all are generated by sin and heedlessness of Allah’s remembrance, just as crops spring from water and burning arises from fire. The opposites of these blessings, in turn, are generated by obedience.
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Blessed is the one who deals justly with his Lord: he confesses his own ignorance before His knowledge, the flaws in his deeds, the defects within himself, his negligence of Allah’s rights, and his wrongdoing in his transactions with Him.
If Allah calls him to account for his sins, he beholds His justice; and if He does not, he beholds His grace.
If he performs a good deed, he views it as a favor and charity from Allah; if Allah accepts it, that is a second favor and charity, and if He rejects it, that is because a deed of that sort is unfit to be offered to Him.
If he commits an evil deed, he sees it as the result of Allah leaving him to himself, forsaking him, and withholding His protection—and that is Allah’s justice toward him. In this he recognizes his poverty before his Lord and his wrongdoing against himself; and if Allah forgives it, that is purely out of His beneficence, bounty, and generosity.
The nub and secret of the matter is that he never sees his Lord except as a benefactor, and he never sees himself except as