‘What should we say?’

He said, ‘Say: “Allah is our Protector, while you have no protector.”’” (1)

Many people swear by a rival they have set up alongside Allah, make vows to it, give loyalty out of love for it, show hostility toward anyone who hates it, swear by it without lying, and fulfill the vows they make to it (2). Yet they lie when they swear by Allah, do not fulfill the vows they make to Allah, do not give loyalty out of love for Allah, and do not show hostility for Allah’s sake as they give loyalty and show hostility for the sake of that rival.

Thus, if someone says, “I do not find in my heart that Allah is dearer to me than anything else,” one of two conclusions necessarily follows: either he is telling the truth, in which case he is a disbeliever who will abide eternally in the Fire—one of those who take rivals besides Allah and love them as they love Allah—or he is mistaken when he says, “I do not find this in my heart.”

A person may possess knowledge and intentions within his heart without realizing that they are there. The presence of something in the heart is one thing, while awareness of it is another. Thus, one of these people may seek to bring something into his heart when it is already present there, and so you see him exhausting himself greatly because of his ignorance. He is like someone plagued by obsessive misgivings (3) regarding prayer. Anyone who performs an act voluntarily while knowing what he is doing (4) must necessarily intend it; it is impossible for such an act to occur without intention—which is the will. Whoever knows that he is rising to pray therefore wills to pray, and it is inconceivable that he could pray without willing to pray (5),