The fifth means is to free the heart from preoccupation with him and thoughts of him, deliberately dismissing him from one’s mind whenever he comes to mind. One should pay him no attention, neither fear him nor fill one’s heart with thoughts of him.

This is among the most beneficial remedies and the strongest means of warding off his evil. It is like someone whose enemy pursues him to seize and hurt him: if he does not confront his enemy or grapple with him, but instead keeps away from him, his enemy cannot get at him. But when they grapple and each takes hold of the other, harm ensues. Souls behave in precisely the same way. A person may attach his soul to his enemy and let it cling to him, while the envious aggressor’s soul remains attached to him, waking and sleeping, never relenting. The aggressor longs for the two souls to grapple and cling to one another. Once each soul becomes attached to the other, peace is lost and the evil continues until one of them perishes. But if a person pulls his soul away from his enemy, guards it against thinking about him or becoming attached to him, and keeps him out of his mind—promptly dismissing any thought of him that arises and occupying himself with what is more beneficial and fitting—then the envious aggressor is left to consume himself. Envy is like fire: when it finds nothing to consume, it consumes itself.

This is an immensely beneficial approach, granted only to those of noble souls and lofty aspirations. The intelligent, discerning person has not truly reached it until he tastes its sweetness, goodness, and bliss. It is as though he sees preoccupation with his enemy and his soul’s attachment to him as among the greatest torments of the heart and soul, and sees nothing more painful to his soul than this. Only tranquil, peaceful, gentle souls believe this: those content to have Allah manage their affairs, knowing that His granting them victory is better than their securing victory for themselves. They therefore trust Allah, rest in Him, and find reassurance in Him. They know that His guarantee is true, His promise is faithful, and that no one is more faithful to his covenant than Allah or more truthful in speech.

They thus know that the victory He grants them is stronger, firmer, more lasting, and more beneficial than any victory they could secure for themselves or that another created being like themselves could secure for them. Yet one can only find the strength for this through the sixth means:

It is to devote oneself to Allah, to be sincere to Him, and to make one’s love for Him, one’s desire for His pleasure, and one’s turning back