the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of the truth they have recognized.” And He says:

“They fall upon their faces, weeping, and it increases them in humility.”

The state of these people may be condemned by those who themselves have a blameworthy degree of hardness and rust upon their hearts and estrangement from religion—and indeed, some have done so. Others suppose that this state of theirs is the most perfect, complete, and exalted of all states. Both extremes are blameworthy.

Rather, there are three levels:

The first is the state of one who wrongs himself: his heart is hard and does not soften through listening and remembrance. Such people bear a resemblance to the Jews. Allah Most High says:

“Then your hearts hardened after that, becoming like stones or even harder. For there are stones from which rivers gush, others that split and water flows out, and others that fall down out of fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.”

And Allah Most High says:

“Has the time not come for those who believe that their hearts should be humbled at the remembrance of Allah and the truth that has been revealed, and that they should not be like those who were given the Scripture before, for whom a long time passed, so their hearts hardened? And many of them are defiantly disobedient.”

The second is the state of the pious believer who lacks the strength to bear what comes upon his heart. It is such a person who is struck down, either dead or unconscious, for this