by some people who said, “We do not have any whisperings during the prayer.” Ibn ʿAbbās—or Ibn Masʿūd—replied, “What is Satan to do with a ruined heart?” His meaning is that their hearts are already in ruin, and Satan does not bother with ruined hearts, for they have already reached the goal he seeks. Rather, Satan comes to hearts that are sound and devoted, in order to cast into them whisperings and doubts. So dismiss those doubts, take refuge with your Lord, and say: “I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan. Allah is One, Allah is the Ever-Besought; He neither begets nor is begotten, and there is none comparable unto Him. He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden.” By Allah’s permission those thoughts will vanish. This hadith, then, brings glad tidings: whoever bears witness—with a heart certain—that there is no god but Allah should rejoice in the promise of Paradise.

711 – Ibn Shumāsah reported: We were present with ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, may Allah be pleased with him, when he was at the point of death. He wept for a long time and turned his face toward the wall, while his son kept saying, “My father, did not the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, give you glad tidings of such-and-such? Did he not give you glad tidings of such-and-such?” ʿAmr then turned his face back and said, “The best provision we can count on is the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I had once been