thus their faith increases; whenever His verses are recited to them, their belief grows in both of these respects.

Accordingly, if you find within yourself that each time you recite the Quran your faith rises, then this is one of the signs of divine success. But if you read the Quran and remain unaffected, you must treat yourself. I do not mean that you should go to a hospital to receive a dose of tablets, water, or anything of that sort; rather, you must treat the heart. For when the heart draws no benefit from the Quran and takes no admonition from it, that heart is hard and diseased—may Allah grant us well-being.

My brother, you are the physician of your own soul—do not run to other people. Recite the Quran: if you see that it stirs you to faith, affirmation, and obedience, then glad tidings to you—you are a believer. If not, you are in need of medicine; heal yourself before there comes to you a death after which there is no life, namely the death of the heart. As for the death of the body, after it comes life, then resurrection, recompense, and reckoning.

Concerning His words, “and upon their Lord they depend” (al-Anfāl 8:2): they rely upon their Lord alone, meaning that they entrust all their affairs exclusively to their Owner and Disposer, to none besides Him. The advance placement of the object in the Arabic verse, and the way the clause is linked, both underscore this exclusivity: they depend on none but Allah, exalted is He. If you place your trust in anyone other than Allah, you have relied only on a creature like yourself, who does not care for your welfare as much as you do. Therefore, rely on Allah—glorified be He—in all matters of your religion and your worldly life.

“Those who establish the prayer and spend out of what We have provided them.”