a servant’s certainty grows, Allah steadies it and makes it stronger, just as He, exalted is He, says: “And as for those who are rightly guided, He increases them in guidance and grants them their God-consciousness” (47:17). Yet, Hanzalah, it is “an hour and an hour—an hour and an hour, an hour and an hour”: an hour for the Lord, an hour with one’s wife and children, and an hour for oneself, so that a person may rest and give everyone who has a claim upon him his due.

Such is the fairness and completeness of the Islamic law: Allah has a right, so His right must be given; the self has a right, so its right must be given; the family has rights, so their rights must be given; and visitors and guests have rights, so their rights must be given—so that a person fulfills all obligations in a balanced, comfortable manner and worships Allah with ease. For when someone overburdens himself and makes matters too hard, he soon grows weary and exhausted and ends up neglecting many duties.

What applies to worship, to the rights of the self, the family, and the guest, applies equally to the pursuit of knowledge. If a student feels bored while revising a certain book, he should turn to another; if he tires of studying a particular field, he should move to a different discipline. In this way he relaxes yet still gains abundant knowledge. But if he forces himself to continue, the resulting tedium and fatigue may cause him to give up altogether—except for those whom Allah wills otherwise. Some people indeed compel themselves to review, read, and research despite weariness until it becomes their habitual occupation, and were they to lose it they would feel constrained. Allah grants His grace to whom He wills, and Allah is the Lord of immense bounty.