So the righteous—the people of the Right—are those who seek closeness to Him through the obligatory duties: they carry out whatever Allah has made incumbent upon them and abstain from whatever He has forbidden, yet they do not burden themselves with recommended acts nor with renouncing permissible but superfluous enjoyments.

By contrast, the forerunners who are brought near approached Him with the supererogatory deeds in addition to the obligatory ones: they fulfilled both the duties and the recommended practices, avoided the forbidden and the disliked. When they sought Him with every beloved deed within their ability, the Lord loved them with a perfect love, as He—Exalted is He—has said:

“My servant continues to draw near to Me with voluntary works until I love him.”

This denotes an unrestricted love, like His words:

“Guide us to the straight path—the path of those upon whom You have bestowed Your favor, not of those who incur wrath nor of those who go astray” (Quran 1:6–7),

meaning: shower them with the complete and unrestricted favor mentioned in His saying:

“Whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger, those will be with the ones upon whom Allah has bestowed His favor—the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs, and the righteous. What excellent companions these are” (Quran 4:69).

For these who have been brought near, even the merely permissible matters become acts of obedience by which they draw closer to Allah, Mighty and Majestic; thus all their deeds are worship of Him. They will therefore drink an unmixed draught, just as they acted for Him with unmixed devotion.

As for the moderate ones, some of their deeds were done for their own benefit; for those they will neither be punished nor rewarded.