reckoning.”

“Or like layers of darkness in a deep sea, covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds—darkness upon darkness. When one stretches out his hand, he can hardly see it. And whoever Allah does not grant light has no light.”

He, glorified be He, thus sets forth two parables:

The first is the parable of disbelief and compound ignorance, which the person possessing it thinks has substance, whereas in reality it is an illusion with no existence, like a mirage. The heart thirsts for truth just as the body thirsts for water. When he seeks what he thought was water, he finds it to be a mirage, and he finds Allah there, who pays him his account in full; and Allah is swift in reckoning. This is how you will find most of those who depart from the Sunnah and the community.

The second is the parable of disbelief and simple ignorance, in which a person neither discerns any truth nor sees any guidance. Compound disbelief necessarily entails simple disbelief, and every instance of disbelief must involve compound ignorance. Allah, glorified be He, set forth these two parables to illustrate the condition of holding a false belief and the condition of not knowing the truth—which resembles the condition of those who have incurred wrath and those who are astray—the condition of one who obstinately clings to falsehood until punishment befalls him, and the condition of a person astray who cannot see the path of guidance.

We therefore ask Allah the Almighty to make us steadfast through the firm word in this worldly life and in the Hereafter, and to enable us to hold fast to the Book and the Sunnah.