Section

Servitude revolves around fifteen principles. Whoever fulfills them completely perfects the ranks of servitude. To explain: servitude is apportioned among the heart, the tongue, and the limbs, each of which has its own particular forms of servitude.

The rulings governing servitude are five: obligatory, recommended, prohibited, disliked, and permissible. These apply to each of the heart, the tongue, and the limbs. As for the obligations of the heart, some are agreed upon, while others are disputed.

Those whose obligatory nature is agreed upon include sincerity, love, patience, turning back to Allah, fear, hope, firm belief, and intention in worship. This last involves something beyond sincerity, for sincerity means singling out the One worshipped to the exclusion of all others.

Intention in worship has two levels:

The first is distinguishing worship from habitual action.

The second is distinguishing the different ranks of acts of worship from one another.

All three categories are obligatory.

Truthfulness is likewise obligatory. The distinction between it and sincerity is that the servant has both an object of pursuit and the pursuit itself: sincerity means having a single object of pursuit, while truthfulness means being undivided in that pursuit.

Thus, sincerity means having an undivided aim, while truthfulness means pursuing it with undivided resolve. Truthfulness is exerting one’s utmost effort, whereas sincerity is singling out the object of one’s pursuit. The Muslim community is agreed that these deeds of the heart are obligatory in general.

The same applies to wholehearted dedication in servitude, around which religion revolves. It consists in devoting one’s utmost effort to