and both are attained through avoiding sins and guarding one’s faculties, as well as through repentance and charity, which is doing good. These two are fear of Allah and doing good, and:

“Indeed, Allah is with those who fear Him and those who do good.”

Al-Tirmidhī narrated, and graded as authentic, the report that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked, “What most often causes people to enter Hell?” He replied, “The two bodily openings: the mouth and the private parts.” He was also asked, “What most often causes people to enter Paradise?” He replied, “Fear of Allah and good character.”

Fear of Allah includes guarding one’s chastity and lowering one’s gaze. Good character includes kindness to others and refraining from harming them, which requires patience. Kindness to others springs from mercy, and Allah Most High says:

“And they urge one another to patience and urge one another to mercy.”

He, Glorified be He, mentions zakāh here, just as He mentioned it earlier in His words:

“Were it not for Allah’s grace and mercy upon you, not one of you would ever have been purified.”

Avoiding sins brings about zakāh, which consists in the removal of evil and the attainment of good. The successful are those who fulfil their obligations and refrain from what is forbidden, as He describes them at the beginning of Surah al-Baqarah:

“Alif Lām Mīm. This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those who fear Allah,”

and the verses that follow. He also says:

“Successful indeed is the one who purifies his soul.”

Thus, since He has declared that these people are successful, and that the successful are those who fear Allah—

“Who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them”—

and has declared that whoever purifies his soul is successful, this indicates that