“You have understood, so hold fast—a servant whose heart Allah has illuminated.”

Thus, the words in this hadith that they transmit, “What is the reality of your faith?” mean: what makes it real and confirms its truth? He therefore mentioned the certainty and renunciation of worldly attachments that confirm it and make it real, as stated in the hadith: “The first generations of this community were saved through certainty and renunciation of worldly attachments.”

Abū Saʿīd’s expression “the reality of nearness” therefore means that what makes nearness real is the heart’s being empty of everything other than Allah and finding tranquillity with Him. This is the realization of sincerity and divine oneness: whoever realizes this is among those nearest to Allah. It is the realization of the declaration of sincere faith: “There is no god but Allah.”

This has two degrees. Those who experience fanā (effacement) lose their perception and awareness of things, wholly absorbed in the remembrance of Allah. And the angels and those endowed with knowledge—He, glorified be He, has borne witness to their oneness in His divinity, His testimony encompassing all His creation. For He is an all-knowing Witness, not absent from created beings. Thus, those endowed with knowledge