in His Book. They also need Him by virtue of His divinity, for they cannot flourish unless He is the One they worship, love, and revere. They must not set up rivals to Him whom they love as they love Allah. Rather, whoever else they love—such as His prophets and His righteous servants—they love only for His sake. As reported in the two Sahīh collections, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Whoever possesses three qualities will taste the sweetness of faith: that Allah and His Messenger are dearer to him than anything else; that he loves a person only for Allah’s sake; and that he abhors returning to disbelief after Allah has saved him from it as much as he abhors being cast into the Fire.”

It is well known that petitioning, love, humility, fear, hope, reverence, acknowledgment of need and dependence, and the like presuppose awareness of the One who is petitioned and loved, in whom hope is placed, who is feared, worshipped, and revered, and whom souls acknowledge they need and depend upon. Everything humbles itself before His greatness, submits to His power, and bows before His might.

If souls need these things and cannot do without them—indeed, if they are necessities within them—then there is even greater reason for their prerequisite and necessary concomitant, acknowledgment of the Maker, to be present within souls.

And the Prophet’s statement in the authentic hadith:

“Every child is born upon the natural disposition,”

and what he narrates from his Lord:

“I created My servants devoted to Me alone,”