to look upon You, or out of reverence for You,” and other such expressions. Their intention is to seek something higher than eating, drinking, and enjoying created things. But they err in excluding this from Paradise. They may also err in imagining that they worship Allah without seeking any benefit for themselves or having any desire, and that whatever is sought from Him serves the self’s own interests. They imagine that a human being acts without any desire, anything sought, or anything loved. This reflects a poor understanding of the reality of faith, religion, and the Hereafter.

The reason for this is that a person’s aspiration, fixed upon what he seeks, loves, and worships, makes him oblivious to himself, until he is no longer conscious of himself or his desires. He then imagines that he acts without desiring anything, whereas what he seeks and upon which he fixes his aspiration is the very summit of what he desires, loves, and pursues.

This resembles the condition of many righteous and truthful people, and those who attain spiritual states and stations: a person may have genuine spiritual feeling and sound inward perception, yet he has no