and this is the spirit of remembrance and supplication. He specified secrecy for supplication because of the wisdoms we have mentioned and others besides, and fear for remembrance because the one who remembers Allah needs fear. Remembrance necessarily entails love and nurtures it; whoever remembers Allah abundantly will inevitably develop love for Him through it. Yet unless love is accompanied by fear, it does not benefit the one who possesses it; rather, it harms him. For it breeds laxity and undue familiarity, and has sometimes led many deluded, ignorant people to consider it sufficient in place of their religious obligations. They say:

“The sole purpose of acts of worship is the heart’s worship, its turning towards Allah, and its love for Him. Once that purpose has been attained, occupying oneself with the means is pointless.”

A man once told me that he had reproached one of these people for entering a retreat during which he abandoned the Friday prayer. The shaykh said to him, “Do the jurists not say that if someone fears for some of his property, his obligation to attend the Friday prayer is waived?”

He replied, “Yes.”

The shaykh said, “The seeker’s heart is dearer to him than ten dirhams”—or words to that effect—“and if he goes out, his heart becomes distracted. Protecting his heart is therefore a valid excuse exempting him from the Friday prayer.”

The man replied, “You are being deluded. Your duty is to go out in obedience to the command of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.”

Consider this tremendous delusion and how it has led to casting off Islam altogether. Whoever follows this path sheds Islam in its general sense just as a snake sheds its skin, all the while imagining himself to be among the elite of the elite.