sin and righteousness stir within people’s hearts, what, then, of someone for whom Allah is his hearing and sight, and who has Him in his heart?

Ibn Masʿūd said:

“Sin takes hold of hearts.”

We have already explained that falsehood brings doubt, while truth brings reassurance. Thus, a truthful report puts both the soul and the heart at ease. Moreover, Allah created His servants with an innate disposition toward the truth. If this disposition remains unaltered, it perceives things as they really are, rejecting what is wrong and recognizing what is right.

ʿUmar said:

“Truth is clear and cannot escape a discerning person.”

If the innate disposition is genuinely sound and illuminated by the light of the Quran, things become manifest to it as they really are, in those distinguishing features. The darkness of ignorance is dispelled from it, and it sees matters directly, although they remain hidden from others.

In the Sunan collections, the Musnad, and elsewhere, al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Allah sets forth a parable: a straight path, with two walls along its sides. In the walls are open doors, and over the doors hang curtains. A caller calls at the entrance to the path, and another caller calls from above the path. The straight path is Islam; the hanging curtains are Allah’s boundaries; and the open doors are the things Allah has forbidden. Whenever a servant wishes to open one of those doors, the caller calls out to him: ‘O servant of Allah, do not open it, for if you open it, you will enter it.’ And the caller at the entrance to