as the Messenger thereby also mentions Allah. But whoever mentions Allah without mentioning him as the Messenger is not a believer. As for the hadiths stating, “Whoever says, ‘There is no god but Allah,’ will be brought out of the Fire,” and “The person most blessed by my intercession on the Day of Resurrection will be whoever says, ‘There is no god but Allah,’ sincerely from his heart,” and similar statements, this is because such a declaration necessarily entails faith in the Messenger, as we have explained elsewhere. This declaration is valid only from those who acknowledge his messengership. Given the weakness of faith in the Book and the Messenger into which these people and their like have fallen, along with various forms of misguidance and ignorance—even the very polytheism from which they claimed to have fled—we ask Allah, the Turner of hearts, to keep our hearts steadfast upon His religion.

Likewise, when al-Shiblī was asked, “When will you find rest?” he replied, “When I see no one remembering Him.” To cite this as an instance of the jealousy that belongs to the way of Allah’s allies and His righteous servants is among the gravest wrongs, and among the sayings hated by Allah, His Messenger, and His allies, from the earliest to the latest generations. Is a believer’s jealousy aroused by Allah being remembered, or is it aroused