Among these examples as well is the Almighty’s statement about Joseph: “She certainly desired him, and he would have desired her had he not seen the proof of his Lord” [Yūsuf 24]. That is, when he turned back to the faith within him—his mindfulness of Allah, his fear, awe, and hope—the urge and all that followed from it were repelled and faded away, and his resolute will became wholly directed toward what pleases his Lord. For this reason he attained the rank of the Truthful, owing to the strength of his sincerity and the vigilance of his faith in his Lord’s signs. He triumphed after a severe ordeal at the hands of the women—an ordeal that only the noblest of creation can endure—until he prayed that his Lord would remove him from the places of temptation, saying: “My Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me” [Yūsuf 33]. Whoever imitates him qualifies to stand among the seven whom Allah will shade in His shade on the Day when there is no shade but His—“a man who is invited by a woman possessing status and beauty and yet says, ‘I fear Allah’” (1).

The Exalted also says: “Indeed, those who are mindful of Allah—when a passing thought from Satan touches them, they remember, and then they see clearly” [al-Aʿrāf 201]. This includes the fleeting notion that may assail the very root of faith or that may stir the will. Whenever it touches them, they recall whatever summons to faith and its duties—Allah’s signs, His ways, His wisdom, and His rulings—so they perceive the truth; doubts and desires are driven off, and Satan withdraws humiliated and abject.

Perhaps the same applies to Lot’s words: “or that I might take refuge in some mighty support” [Hūd 80], and to the Prophet’s saying, blessings and peace be upon him, “May Allah have mercy on Lot; he had a Mighty Support to whom he could have taken refuge” (2)—meaning Allah, the All-Powerful, the Almighty. Yet in that critical situation Lot was overtaken by consideration of ordinary, visible causes, and so he said what he did, despite his full awareness of the might of the One possessed of majesty and glory.