they imagine the form of the beloved, though no sensory image may arise. This representation is not of the same kind as the reality itself at all. Rather, since knowledge corresponds to what is known and accords with it rather than contradicting it, there is a certain correspondence and resemblance between the two, and thus a kind of representation. An analogy is drawn between things because they share certain features; here, too, there is certainly some shared feature and some resemblance.

It has been said that this is what is meant by His words, Most High:

“There is nothing like Him,”

and His words:

“To Him belongs the highest description in the heavens and the earth.”

In a transmitted hadith:

“Neither My earth nor My heaven encompasses Me, but the heart of My believing servant—pure, pious, tranquil and tender—encompasses Me.”

It is also said: “The heart is the house of the Lord.” This is the servants’ share from their Lord and their portion of faith in Him. As one of the early Muslims is reported to have said:

“If any of you wishes to know his standing with Allah, let him consider Allah’s standing in his heart. For Allah accords the servant a standing with Him corresponding to the standing the servant accords Him in his heart.”

This has also been reported as traced back to the Prophet, through Ayyūb ibn Abd Allāh ibn Khālid ibn Safwān, from Jābir ibn Abd Allāh. It was transmitted by Abū Ya‘lā al-Mawsilī and by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā in The Book of Remembrance. For this reason, Jacob’s sons said:

“We worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham and Isaac.”

Their hearts’ devotion to Allah as God varies enormously in degree, increasing and decreasing. Their differences in this respect are so great that neither extreme can be precisely delimited. Indeed, it is established in an authentic report that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said concerning two men:

“This man is better than an earth full of men like that one.”

Thus, a single individual became