is not pleased with defiantly disobedient people.” Our approval of defiantly disobedient people is therefore not something Allah loves and approves of, for He is not pleased with them.

Allah Most High says:

“Are you content with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? Yet the enjoyment of this worldly life is but little compared with the Hereafter.”

This is a form of contentment that Allah has condemned. Allah Most High also says:

“Indeed, those who do not expect to meet Us, who are content with the life of this world and feel secure in it…”

This, too, is blameworthy contentment, and there are many other examples besides these two. Whoever approves of his own disbelief and that of others, his own wickedness and that of others, and his own sins and those of others is neither pursuing Allah’s pleasure nor a believer in Allah. Rather, he is displeasing his Lord, and his Lord is angry with him, curses him, condemns him, and threatens him with punishment.

The path to Allah that rightly guided spiritual teachers enjoin consists precisely in enjoining obedience to Allah and forbidding disobedience to Him. Whoever commands, recommends, or praises a form of contentment that Allah hates, condemns, forbids, and punishes those who embrace it is an enemy of Allah, not a friend of Allah. He turns people away from Allah’s way and path rather than following His path and way.

If, then, the contentment found among human beings includes forms that Allah loves, forms that He hates and is displeased with, and forms that are permissible, belonging to neither category—like all other deeds of the heart, such as love, hatred, and the like, which are likewise divided into what Allah loves, what Allah hates, and what is permissible—