involving the private parts. Pardon applies only to what has not found outward expression in word or deed and has never been accompanied by anything outward. This is pardoned for those who fulfil the heart’s obligation to carry out what is commanded, whether the command concerns an act of the heart whose necessary effects appear in the body, or an outward bodily act which the heart knows and intends.

When such people entertain thoughts within themselves, these are pardoned—for example, a persistent inclination unaccompanied by action, or intrusive thoughts they detest. They are rewarded for detesting those thoughts and for abandoning, for Allah Most High and out of fear of Him, what they had contemplated and resolved to do.