and the world now lies behind him; thus that unalloyed testimony became the closing deed of his life, cleansing him of his sins and ushering him into the presence of his Lord. He met his Lord bearing a sincere and truthful testimony whose outward expression matched its inward reality, whose secret matched its public face.

Had that testimony come to him in this state while he was still healthy, he would have felt estranged from the world and its people, fled from mankind to Allah, and found intimacy with Him to the exclusion of all else. Instead, he uttered it with a heart swollen with cravings, with love of life and its trappings, and with a soul engrossed in seeking its own shares and turning toward other than Allah. Had the soul been stripped bare—as it is stripped bare at death—it would have had an altogether different story and lived a life far removed from its animal existence.

Allah alone is the One whose help is sought.

What control can a creature possibly have over his own affair when his forelock is in Allah’s hand, his very soul is in His grasp, and his heart lies between two of His fingers, which He turns however He wills (1); when his life is in His hand, his death in His hand, his happiness in His hand and his misery in His hand; when his movements and stillness, his words and deeds, occur only by His permission and will? He does not stir except by His leave, nor act except by His will. If Allah leaves him to himself, He leaves him to incapacity, abasement, negligence, sin, and error. Should He leave him in the care of someone else, He consigns him to one who holds no power to harm or benefit him, or to give death, life, or resurrection. And if Allah abandons him altogether, his enemy will overpower him and make him his captive.

He is therefore incapable of doing without Allah for the blink of an eye; in fact, he is in absolute, incessant need of Him with every breath, in every atom of his being, both outwardly and inwardly—his poverty before Him is complete. Yet, in spite of this, he lags behind, turns away, and incurs Allah’s displeasure through disobedience, though his need for Him is urgent from every angle. He has forgotten Allah’s remembrance and cast Him behind his back. All this—while his ultimate return is to Him, and it is before Him that he will stand?!