He likens the faith and Quran that descend from heaven upon hearts and mingle with doubts and misleading desires to rain whose torrent carries foam, and to gold, silver, iron, and similar metals that carry dross when melted in fire. This foam and dross are then cast far from the heart. He makes the foam an image of falsehood, which brings no benefit. By contrast, the water and metals that benefit people represent beneficial truth, which settles and remains in the heart.

The words of Allah Most High have already been cited:

“Those who disbelieve and turn others away from the path of Allah—He will render their deeds fruitless,”

through to His words:

“That is because those who disbelieve follow falsehood, while those who believe follow the truth from their Lord. Thus Allah sets forth their examples for people.”

He, glorified be He, explains why He rendered the deeds of those who disbelieved fruitless, so that they brought them no benefit, whereas the deeds of those who believed benefited them, expiating their sins, and Allah set their affairs right: the former followed falsehood in speech and action, in belief and in the course they pursued, in statements and commands. The latter followed the truth from their Lord; they did not follow what came from other than their Lord, even if it was true in some respect. This confirms what we have said: a statement depends on what it describes, and an action depends on its intended outcome. If that is false and has no reality, what depends upon it is likewise false or futile, even though it exists.

The same applies to His previously cited words:

“Do not nullify your charitable deeds,”

and His words:

“Do not nullify your deeds,”

and similar passages concerning the nullification of deeds that have already occurred and existed. Their nullity consists in the absence of benefit, not in the nonexistence of the deeds themselves: the deeds have come to an end, just as deeds that have not been nullified have come to an end. How, then,