is in a better state than someone who falls short of him in knowledge of the revealed commands and obedience to them. Others distance themselves from the revealed commands and let themselves drift until they cast off Islam entirely, remaining guided by their desires and divine decree. Some of these die as disbelievers, while Allah enables others to repent; some die as evildoers, while Allah enables others to repent.

These people consider the reality of divine decree while turning away from the revealed commands. Yet they must still follow commands and prohibitions other than those of revelation, whether originating from themselves or from someone other than Allah and His Messenger. For passively going along with divine decree in every respect is inherently impossible, since, as explained earlier, the servant is naturally disposed to love some things and hate others.

As for the saying:

“The servant is to be with Allah as a corpse is with the one who washes it,”

this is neither correct nor permissible as an unqualified statement about any Muslim. It may be said only in certain circumstances, and even then only because Allah’s command is unclear to him. Otherwise, once he knows what Allah has commanded and loves, he must love what Allah loves and hate what He hates.