that are disliked.

The second textual proof for mutual assistance in righteousness and piety is what the author—may Allah have mercy on him—cites from the context of Sūrah al-ʿAṣr, where Allah the Exalted says:

“By the declining day, surely man is in loss, save those who believe, perform righteous deeds, counsel one another to the truth, and counsel one another to patience.” (Al-ʿAṣr 103:1–3)

Allah, exalted be He, swore by al-ʿaṣr—that is, time itself—for within time some people fill their span with good while others fill it with evil. He swore by time because of the clear connection between what is sworn by and what is sworn about: the deeds of human beings. He then declared, “Surely man is in loss.” The term “man” is all-embracing; it includes every human being—believer and unbeliever, upright and corrupt, male and female. Every human being is in a state of loss: all his efforts end in loss for him—toil in this world and no gain in the Hereafter—except the one who combines these four qualities: “those who believe, perform righteous deeds, counsel one another to the truth, and counsel one another to patience.” Such people reform themselves through faith and righteous action, and they reform others through mutual exhortation to truth and mutual exhortation to patience.

Faith is to affirm everything that must be believed—everything Allah and His Messenger have informed us of. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ clarified this when he said, “Faith is that you believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and destiny, its good and its evil.” These are the six pillars.

As for performing righteous deeds, it refers to every act that draws a person near to Allah, and an action is not