be accompanied by something that exists. Thus, when a person lacks knowledge, his soul naturally impels him, for it is alive (*), and voluntary movement is inseparable from life. Hence the names that most truthfully describe a person are al-Hārith and al-Humām. The hadith states:
“The heart is like a feather cast down,”
and so on. Another hadith states:
“The heart changes more rapidly than a pot at a rolling boil.”
Such being its condition, if Allah guides the soul, He teaches it what benefits it and what harms it, so that it desires what benefits it and abandons what harms it. Allah, glorified be He, has favoured the children of Adam with two things that form the foundation of happiness:
First: Every child is born upon the natural disposition, as recorded in the two Sahīh collections. Muslim also records, from ‘Iyād ibn Himār, a report traced back to the Prophet:
“I created My servants as pure monotheists,”
and the hadith continues. Thus, if left to its natural disposition, the soul would love Allah and worship Him without associating anything with Him. It is corrupted, however, by those devils among humans and jinn who make evil alluring to it. Allah Most High says:
“And when your Lord took from the children of Adam—from their backs—their descendants,”
and the verse continues. The explanation of this verse is set out at length elsewhere.
Second: Allah Most High has granted people general guidance through the reason He has endowed them with, the scriptures He has sent down to them, and the messengers He has sent to them. Allah Most High says:
“Read in the name of your Lord who created,”
up to His words:
“what he did not know.”
Allah Most High also says:
“The Most Merciful taught the Quran, created man, and taught him speech.”
Allah Most High also says:
“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High, who created and fashioned, and who determined and guided.”
He also says:
“And We guided him to the two ways.”
Within every person, therefore, is that which calls for recognizing the truth and loving it. Allah has guided each person to kinds of knowledge through which he can attain happiness in the Hereafter, and has placed a love for this within his natural disposition.