There is no doubt that the more a person increases in knowledge, the more he gains awareness and a keener criterion by which to distinguish truth from falsehood and benefit from harm. Part of this growth is the understanding that Allah opens for a servant, for taqwā (God-consciousness) is the very cause that strengthens comprehension and thereby expands knowledge. You may see two men who have memorised the same verse from Allah’s Book: one is able to derive three rulings from it, while the other can extract four, five, ten, or even more—exactly in proportion to the insight Allah has granted him. Thus, taqwā is a means to deeper understanding.

This includes, as well, firāsa (intuitive discernment). Allah grants the God-fearing a perceptive insight by which they can even distinguish between people: at a mere glance they know whether someone is truthful or lying, righteous or wicked. At times they will judge a person whom they have never lived with nor heard anything about, solely on the basis of the firāsa Allah has given them.

Also encompassed are the karāmāt (extraordinary favors) bestowed upon the God-fearing—favors that others do not receive. Many of the Companions and their Successors experienced them. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may Allah be pleased with him, was once delivering a sermon from the pulpit in Madinah when those present heard him, in the middle of the sermon, call out: “O Sāriyah, the mountain! O Sāriyah, the mountain!” They were astonished—whom was he addressing, and how could he say this during the sermon? In reality, Allah, exalted is He, had unveiled to him the condition of a detachment in Iraq that was