Allah” (Sūrat al-Ḥadīd 57:27).

For this reason al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, commenting on the verse, “that He may test you as to which of you is best in deed” (Sūrat al-Mulk 67:2), said: “It means the deed that is most sincere and most correct.” They asked him, “Abū ʿAlī, what is ‘most sincere and most correct’?” He replied, “When a deed is correct but not sincere it is not accepted, and when it is sincere but not correct it is not accepted—until it is both sincere and correct. Sincerity means that it is done for Allah alone, and correctness means that it is in accordance with the Sunnah.”

If this is the state of the Christians, then what of those who are even more misguided? Whatever wisdom these latter possess is only a fraction of what the Christians have, for matters of personal ethics, household management, and civic order are all included in the Christians’ religion—though they invented parts of it and Allah did not reveal it. Subduing desire and anger is a component of monastic worship, and renouncing wealth and leadership is part of the condition of the deficient, unbelieving monk. How, then, can this be taken as the very goal of worship and renunciation that the Sacred Law enjoins?

These thinkers claimed that the soul has two powers: a cognitive (theoretical) power and a practical power. The cognitive power, they said, has two aspects—love and hate—while appetite arises from love and anger from hate. Through appetite one seeks benefit; through anger one repels harm; and the rectification of them both lies in justice. They therefore confined practical wisdom to four virtues: wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage (or forbearance). Temperance is the moderation of appetite, and courage—or forbearance—the moderation of anger.

What they have mentioned represents only a portion of the deeds commanded by the messengers, and even that they express in a summary fashion, for knowledge comprises many kinds, and appetite