The God-fearing believers act for Him and through Him: they worship Him and seek His help.

Another group worships Him without seeking His help or exercising patience. You find among them a concern for obedience, scrupulousness, and adherence to the Sunnah; yet they lack reliance upon Allah, seeking His help, and patience. Instead, they exhibit helplessness and anxiety.

Another group seeks His help, relies upon Him, and exercises patience, but does not steadfastly obey His commands or follow the Sunnah. One of them may be granted power and attain a certain inward and outward spiritual state. He may receive unveilings and abilities to bring about effects that the former group has not received. Yet he has no good final outcome, for he is not among the God-fearing, and the good final outcome belongs to those who fear Allah.

The former group has a weak religious commitment, but it endures and remains, provided the person does not undermine it through anxiety and helplessness. Those in the latter group possess a spiritual state and strength, but nothing of this remains for them except insofar as they obey the commands and follow the Sunnah.

The worst category consists of those who neither worship Him nor seek His help. Such a person does not recognize that his knowledge is for Allah or that it is through Allah.

The Mu‘tazilites and others like them—among the Qadarites who deny divine decree—are better in their reverence for the commands and prohibitions, and the promise of reward and threat of punishment, than these fatalist Qadarites who turn away from the revealed Law and its commands and prohibitions.

The Sufis are better than the Mu‘tazilites with respect to divine decree and witnessing Allah’s oneness in lordship. Yet among them are those who hold certain innovations while disregarding some of the commands and prohibitions, and the promise of reward and threat of punishment