For this reason, it has been said:
“Placing one’s reliance on means violates Allah’s oneness by associating partners with Him; denying that means have a causal role betrays a deficiency in reason; and disregarding means altogether undermines the revealed Law.”
For this reason, Allah Most High says:
“So when you have finished, strive hard, and direct your longing to your Lord.”
He thus commands that longing be directed to Him alone. He also says:
“And put your trust in Allah, if you are believers.”
The heart places its trust only in what it hopes in. Whoever places his hope in his strength, deeds, knowledge, condition, friend, relatives, teacher, authority, or wealth, without looking to Allah, has some degree of reliance on that means. No one ever places his hope or trust in a created being without having his expectations disappointed, for he is associating partners with Allah:
“Whoever associates partners with Allah—it is as though he had fallen from the sky and the birds snatched him away, or the wind swept him into a distant place.”
Likewise, the one who associates partners with Allah fears created beings and places his hopes in them, and so terror takes hold of him. As Allah Most High says:
“We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve because they have associated with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority.”
Those who are free of associating partners with Allah attain security, as Allah Most High says:
“Those who believe and do not mix their faith with wrongdoing—it is they who will have security, and they are rightly guided.”
The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explained that “wrongdoing” here means associating partners with Allah. In the Sahih, Ibn Masʿūd reports:
“When this verse was revealed, it weighed heavily on the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. They said, ‘Which of us has not wronged himself?’ The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, replied, ‘This refers only to associating partners with Allah. Have you not heard the righteous servant’s words: “Indeed, associating partners with Allah is a tremendous wrong”?’”