believe follow the truth from their Lord. Thus Allah sets forth for people their examples.” The passage continues to His saying:

“Do not render your deeds vain.”

He also says:

“And We shall turn to whatever deeds they have done and make them scattered dust.”

And the Most High says:

“Do not invalidate your charities with reminders of your generosity and hurt, like one who spends his wealth to be seen by people and does not believe in Allah and the Last Day. His likeness is that of a smooth rock covered with dust: a downpour strikes it and leaves it bare. They can gain nothing from what they have earned.”

He thus makes clear that reminders of one’s generosity and causing hurt invalidate charity, rendering it invalid rather than valid, just as showing off and lack of faith also invalidate spending.

He makes this general in His saying:

“Do not render your deeds vain.”

That is, do not make them worthless, yielding no benefit, reward, or gain. A group of people among the Ittihādiyya and others, such as Ibn ʿArabī, have erred by regarding truth as that which exists, so that everything that exists is true.

They said, “There is nothing false in the world, since there is no nonexistence in the world.” They also said, “Disbelief is merely the nonexistence of a partner, for example.” Their error arose from an ambiguous expression.

For a thing has two levels of consideration. The first concerns the thing itself: either it exists and is therefore real, or it does not exist and is therefore unreal. The second concerns its existence in minds, on tongues, and through the fingers—that is, knowledge and speech