spread to the face, as noted earlier. This effect then grows stronger as righteous or corrupt deeds increase. The greater the righteousness and piety, the greater the goodness and beauty; and the greater the sin and transgression, the greater the ugliness and disgrace, until this effaces whatever beauty or ugliness the outward appearance originally possessed. How many people whose appearance was not beautiful have performed righteous deeds that so enhanced their beauty and radiance that these became visible in their appearance!

This becomes especially apparent when people persist in ugly deeds toward the end of life, as death approaches. We see that the faces of those who adhere to the Sunnah and obey Allah grow more beautiful and radiant as they age, until a person is more handsome and beautiful in old age than in youth. Conversely, we find that the faces of those given to religious innovation and disobedience grow uglier and more disfigured as they age, until those once dazzled by their youthful beauty cannot bear to look at them.

This is plain to everyone in those deeply steeped in religious innovation and wickedness, such as the Rāfidah and those among the Turks and others who commit injustice and indecencies. As a Rāfidī grows older, his face becomes uglier and more disfigured, until his resemblance to a pig grows stronger. He may even be transformed into a pig or an ape, as numerous independent reports about them attest. We also find that beardless youths among the Turks and others may be among the most handsome people when young. Yet those who frequently commit indecency—you find them in