the body, once its illness has been dispelled, loves the food and drink that benefit it. Thus, the presence of an impelling factor and the absence of a counteracting factor each brings about the other, and this brings about a person’s well-being. Their opposites produce the opposite result. When knowledge weakens, desire overpowers (1) a person. If both knowledge and desire are present—the impelling and counteracting factors respectively—the stronger prevails.

Since this is so, human well-being lies in faith and righteous deeds. Only two things lead people away from this: first, ignorance, which is the opposite of knowledge, so that they go astray; second, following the desires and appetites within their souls, so that they become wayward and incur wrath. Hence Allah says:

“By the star when it sets!”

“Your companion has neither strayed nor erred.”

And the Prophet said:

“You must follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the upright, rightly guided caliphs after me. Hold fast to it and bite onto it with your molar teeth.”

He thus described them as upright, which is the opposite of wayward, and rightly guided, which is the opposite of astray. Through these two qualities, both knowledge and action become sound, and a person becomes knowledgeable and just, rather than ignorant or unjust.