These principles, then, are the comprehensive maxims and general foundations upon which these and similar questions rest. We have outlined some concise, comprehensive points, as space permits, which those trained in understanding the religion will recognize. The next step is to examine, through considered judgment, whether the grounds for the ruling are present in the case under question and in other cases. Any condition shown to be invalid must be disregarded; any condition shown to accord with the Book of Allah must be followed; and any condition whose status is unclear or disputed is subject to the ruling governing comparable cases.

Changing some of these invalid conditions requires firm resolve and effective authority, which Allah strengthens through knowledge and religious commitment. Otherwise, if a person acts merely out of personal desire, seeking worldly gain or warding off worldly harm, while presenting this as enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, his efforts are unlikely to succeed. Even if he is seeking redress and looking for someone to help him, he will attain his aim if Allah assists him through someone endowed with those qualities, or through whatever source of assistance He decrees for him. There is no power or strength except through Allah.

What the questioners have described assumes that all these circumstances are present. May Allah facilitate for them, and for all other Muslims, someone who will help them attain what is good in their religious and worldly affairs. Indeed, He has power over all things.

One matter on which scholars agree, without dispute, is that regularly spending the night in a particular place is not, in itself, an act of drawing near to Allah or of obedience to Him. It is so only at certain times, when specifying that place serves a purpose recognized by the Sharia: such as spending the nights in Minā, or