and obeys Allah. A person is ignorant only because his fear of Allah is deficient, for if his fear of Allah were complete, he would not disobey Him. Hence the saying of Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him: “Fear of Allah is sufficient knowledge, and being deluded about Allah is sufficient ignorance.”

This is because conceiving of what is feared prompts one to flee from it, while conceiving of what is loved prompts one to seek it. If someone neither flees from the former nor seeks the latter, this indicates that he has not fully conceived of it. He may, however, conceive of a report about it; but conceiving of a report, accepting its truth, and memorizing its wording are different from conceiving of what it describes.

The same applies when what he conceives of is neither loved nor disliked by him. A person may accept the reality of something that threatens someone else or that someone else loves, without this prompting him either to flee or to seek. Likewise, someone may be told about something he loves or dislikes, and, far from disbelieving the informant, may recognize his truthfulness; yet his heart is too preoccupied with other matters to conceive of what he has been told. Such a person is not moved either to flee or to seek.

Among the well-known sayings of al-Hasan al-Basrī—which is also transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, through a disconnected chain—is:

“Knowledge is of two kinds: knowledge in the heart and knowledge on the tongue. Knowledge in the heart is beneficial knowledge, while knowledge on the tongue is Allah’s proof against His servants.”

It is also recorded in the two Sahīhs, on the authority of Abū Mūsā, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The believer who recites the Quran is like a citron: its taste is pleasant and its fragrance is pleasant. The believer who does not recite the Quran is like a date: its taste is pleasant, but it has no fragrance. The hypocrite who recites the Quran is like basil: its fragrance is pleasant, but its taste is bitter. The hypocrite who does not recite the Quran is like a colocynth: its taste is bitter, and it has no fragrance.”

This hypocrite who recites the Quran memorizes it and conceives of its meanings, and may even believe that it is