Thus, the duty expressed by “You alone we worship” rests upon the heart before the limbs. If the heart is ignorant of this duty and fails to fulfill it, it will inevitably become filled with its opposites. To the extent that it fulfills this duty, it frees itself of those opposites.

These matters and others like them may count as minor or major sins for a person, depending on their strength and severity, or their slightness and subtlety.

Minor sins also include desiring and wishing for forbidden things. The gravity of such desires varies according to the gravity of what is desired. Desiring disbelief and associating partners with Allah is disbelief; desiring religious innovation is sinful defiance; and desiring major sins is disobedience. If a person refrains from these things for Allah’s sake despite being able to commit them, he is rewarded. But if he refrains only because he is unable to commit them, after doing everything within his power to attain them, he deserves the punishment of the perpetrator. This is because he is accorded the same standing in matters of reward and punishment, though not in the application of legal rulings. Hence the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“When two Muslims confront one another with their swords, both the killer and the one killed are in the Fire. They asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we understand about the killer, but why the one killed?’ He replied, ‘He was intent on killing his companion.’” «1»

Thus, because of his intent, he was accorded the same standing as the killer in sin, though not in legal rulings. There are many similar cases concerning reward and punishment.

What is recommended and permissible for the heart can be understood from this.

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As for the five categories of servitude of the tongue, its obligations include uttering the two testimonies of faith and reciting the portions of the Quran necessary for the validity of one’s prayer. They also include uttering the obligatory remembrances in prayer commanded by Allah and His Messenger: glorifying Allah while bowing and prostrating; saying, “Our Lord, to You belongs all praise,” after standing upright; reciting the tashahhud (testimony of faith); and proclaiming Allah’s greatness.

Its obligations also include returning the greeting of peace. There are two opinions concerning initiating it. Further obligations include enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, teaching the ignorant, guiding those who have gone astray, and giving