and their degrees of merit vary in proportion to their reverence and piety, their resistance to base desire, and their steadfast commitment to what is most fitting.

All believers are allies of the Most Merciful, yet the one held in highest esteem before Allah is the most obedient and the one who follows the Qur’an most closely.

They fall into three categories: one who wrongs himself, one who takes a middle course, and one who, by Allah’s leave, races ahead in good works. This proves that faith itself admits of varying levels.

It is not sufficient to claim that faith is nothing more than inner affirmation and verbal profession, for that definition strips deeds from the very name of faith and would imply that whoever believes with his heart and utters it with his tongue has already attained perfect faith, leaving no room for superiority or inferiority. That is a grave error, for distinction is achieved by what has just been mentioned as well as by righteous actions.

This much is true: all believers are allies of Allah—in other words, His beloved servants. Allah loves the believers, loves the God-fearing, loves the doers of good, loves those who repent, and loves those who purify themselves, just as He detests the disbelievers and detests the defiantly disobedient. Allah therefore loves and hates in accordance with people’s deeds.

Thus every believer is a friend of Allah, yet this friendship varies in degree; some are superior to others. The Exalted says, “Unquestionably, the friends of Allah shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve—those who believed and were God-fearing” (Yunus 10:62–63). Among people there are those whose alliance with Allah is complete, those whose alliance is deficient, and those who are outright enemies of Allah, far removed from Him.

Accordingly, anyone who possesses faith and piety is an ally of Allah, but the rank of that alliance itself differs from one person to another.