the Jahmiyyah: they constantly waver between this universal, absolute negation and this universal, absolute affirmation. In both, they are bewildered and astray, not knowing the Lord whom they have been commanded to worship.

Every believer who has examined and tested himself knows with immediate certainty—as surely as he experiences his own love and hatred, pleasure and anger, joy and sorrow—that whenever he sincerely worships Allah, calls upon Him, and turns his heart toward Him, he necessarily directs himself toward Him in a direction relative to himself. If he retains the natural disposition with which he was created, or also believes in what the messengers brought, he directs himself upward. But if his natural disposition has been altered, he directs himself toward all directions and toward every existent being.

This is why Shaykh Abū Jaʿfar al-Hamadhānī said to Abū al-Maʿālī: “No one who knows Allah has ever said, ‘O Allah,’ without finding within his heart an irresistible impulse seeking the direction above, turning neither right nor left.”

It thus becomes clear that His words, “You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help” {5}, and indeed His words, “Guide us to the straight path” {6}, can be spoken sincerely only by someone who acknowledges that Allah is above him. Whoever does not acknowledge this has hypocrisy within him: he has an intention with no object, and worship with no real object of worship. Although he affirms Him in some respects, his heart cannot find reassurance in a God whom he worships. This is further clarified by the fact that the heart’s worship, its intent, and its turning toward Him constitute movement on its part.