and similar statements, imply not merely acknowledgment of the Maker, but an acknowledgment followed by servitude to Allah through love, reverence, and exclusive devotion to Him ن. This is the way of pure monotheism.

The foundation of faith is the heart’s affirmation and action—that is, its knowledge of the Creator and its servitude to Him. The heart is naturally disposed to both.

If some people have departed from this natural disposition because of an affliction that befell them, whether through ignorance or wrongdoing, and have denied Allah’s signs out of injustice and arrogance despite being inwardly certain of them, this does not preclude people’s having been born upon the natural disposition.

Elsewhere, we have cited several statements from those who hold that knowledge is necessary. Knowledge accompanied by love of what is known may be called recognition, as in enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong: what is right is that which hearts love when they know it, while what is wrong is that which they hate and recoil from when they know it.

Thus, someone whose knowledge of Allah is accompanied by love for Him and a penitent turning to Him may be called one who truly knows Him. By contrast, they do not use this designation for someone who possesses knowledge but whose heart lacks love and worshipful devotion.

It is well known that the presence in the heart of love for Allah, fear of Him, longing for Him, and worshipful devotion to Him depends upon acknowledgment of Him; and this latter element entails the former.

If this is necessarily present in the heart, then the acknowledgment that precedes it and is indispensable to it has even greater reason to be necessarily present. For that which entails something cannot exist without that which it entails.