the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, mentioned these to draw attention to things of greater worth, of which a person likewise becomes a slave. He is subject to disparate lords and quarrelsome partners. Hence the Prophet said:

“If he is given, he is pleased; if he is denied, he is displeased.”

Whatever a person is pleased to obtain and displeased to lose, he is its slave, for a slave is pleased through attachment to such things and displeased when deprived of them. As for the true object of worship, besides whom there is no deity, when the believer worships and loves Him, this brings faith, monotheism, love, remembrance and worship into his heart. He is pleased with this and becomes angry if prevented from it. Likewise, anyone who loves something necessarily forms a conception of it in his heart and desires to be connected to it as far as possible.

Al-Junayd said: “A servant does not truly become a servant until he is free of everything besides Allah Most High.” This accords with the hadith: a person cannot be exclusively Allah’s servant, devoting his religion entirely to Him, until he is no longer a slave to anything besides Him and retains not the slightest trace or fraction of servitude to anything besides Allah. If something other than Allah determines his pleasure and displeasure, he is a slave to that other thing. He therefore has a share of polytheism proportionate to his love for it, and his worship of it adds to that.

Al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād said: “By Allah, no one has been true to Allah in his servitude who