or corruption—those who seek leadership and supremacy over others, those who pursue wealth through oppression and aggression, and those who seek unlawful enjoyment of physical beauty through looking or physical contact, and other such pursuits. They endure various hardships, but they lack piety, neglecting what is commanded and committing what is forbidden. Likewise, a man may patiently endure afflictions such as illness, poverty, and other hardships, yet show no piety when given power.

(As for the fourth category, it is the worst of all: they neither fear Allah when they have power nor remain patient when they are tried. Rather, they are as Allah Most High says:

“Indeed, man was created anxious: fretful when evil touches him, and withholding when good touches him.”

You find such people among the most unjust and tyrannical when they have power, and among the most abject and panic-stricken when they are overpowered. If you overpower them, they abase themselves before you, act hypocritically toward you, curry favour with you, and beg for your mercy. To protect themselves, they resort to all manner of lies, self-abasement, and exaltation of the person they petition. But if they overpower you, they are among the most unjust and hard-hearted of people, and the least merciful, kind, and forgiving. Muslims have experienced this with all those furthest removed from the realities of faith, such as the Tatars whom the Muslims fought and those who resemble them in many of their ways—even if such a person outwardly wears the garb of Muslim soldiers, scholars, ascetics, merchants, or craftsmen. What matters is the underlying reality:

“For Allah does not look at your appearance or your wealth; rather, He looks at your hearts and your deeds.”