and for obedience to Him to efface obedience to anything besides Him, reliance on Him to efface reliance on anything besides Him, asking Him to efface asking anything besides Him, and fear of Him to efface fear of anything besides Him. This is sincere devotion to Allah and worshipping Him alone, without partner. It is the religion of Islam with which Allah sent the messengers and revealed the Scriptures.

You also find that those among people of learning, rational reflection, speculative theology, and inquiry who depart from the revealed law in matters of determinism, negation, and affirmation end up in doubt and bewilderment, just as the former group ends up making wild utterances and outrageous claims. These do not believe the truth, whereas those believe falsehood. Religion is truly realized only by believing the Messenger in everything he has reported and obeying him in everything he has commanded, inwardly and outwardly—in knowledge and states of the heart, and in outward words and deeds.

Whoever extols staying awake at night and going hungry without qualification, and enjoins both without qualification, is mistaken. Rather, what is praiseworthy is keeping vigil and going hungry in accordance with the revealed law. As explained above, keeping vigil in accordance with the revealed law involves prayer, remembrance of Allah, recitation, writing down religious knowledge, reflecting on it, studying it, or other acts of worship. What is best varies from person to person. Some scholars say: “Writing down hadith is better than voluntary prayer.” Some spiritual teachers say: “Two units of prayer that I perform at night where no one sees me are better than writing down a hundred hadiths.” Another leading scholar says: “Rather, it is best to do both.”

What is best also varies according to people’s circumstances. Some deeds are superior in kind, yet may be