Chapter on Distinguishing Between Raja' (Hope) and Ghurra (Delusion)
Here he looks at raja' (hope) and becomes deceived by the mention of hope.
So he reassures himself with that, and his caution and his khawf (fear) of God, Mighty and Glorious, diminishes. Yet the deception from a monotheist is but a self-delusion: he wishes for forgiveness while persisting in disobedience. And that is the false hope that the liar supposes to be sincere hope. As Sa'id ibn Jubayr said: "Delusion regarding God, Mighty and Glorious, is persisting in disobedience to God, Mighty and Glorious, while hoping for the forgiveness of God, Mighty and Glorious."
Chapter on Distinguishing Between Hope and Delusion
I said: Explain to me hope so that I may know one from the other.
[One of them is]: Having a good opinion of God, Mighty and Glorious, placed where God, Mighty and Glorious, placed it — for the sake of the sinners among His servants, so that they do not despair, and so that they repent and turn back from their sins. God, Mighty and Glorious, said: «Say: O My servants who have been excessive against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of God». And the Most High's saying: «And turn in repentance to your Lord and submit to Him».
And He said: «And indeed I am most forgiving to the one who repents and believes and does righteous deeds and then is guided». The verse.
— this alone, without taking up the practice that the predecessors upheld. And even if this type were among the leading scholars, the aspirations of the seekers would have risen to it as a practice for the shaykhhood. Some of these seekers have gone deep into delusion and come to believe that their shaykhs will accompany them at the time of death and at the stations of the Day of Resurrection, and that mercy descends upon them by their mention of them, while they persist in what they are in of misguidance and laziness in practice — nay, even in disobedience as well.
And He said: «And when those who believe in Our signs come to you, say: Peace be upon you», your Lord has prescribed mercy upon Himself, that whoever among you does evil in ignorance and then repents after that and sets aright, then He is Forgiving, Merciful [6:54].
Ikrima said: It was revealed concerning ʿUmar — may God be pleased with him — when ʿUtba ibn Rabīʿa and others among them said to him: "If only you would drive them away so we could see what they want." So the verse was revealed: «And do not drive away those who…» the verse. Then ʿUmar came apologizing for what he had said, and so it was revealed: «who call upon their Lord morning and evening» [6:52]. And: «And when those who believe in Our signs come to you, say: Peace be upon you».
So God — mighty and exalted — gave the sinful servant hope of forgiveness upon tawba (repentance), even if his sins are great and his offenses are many, so that the magnitude and multitude of his sins do not prevent him from repenting to his Lord — mighty and exalted — and he does not fear a fear with which he despairs, to the point that he says: "He will not forgive me and will not accept my repentance," and so he persists in disobedience out of fear that He will not accept repentance from him. His despair then increases his persistence in acts of disobedience, and through his despair he adds disobedience upon his acts of disobedience. For despair is disobedience against God — mighty and exalted — that prevents one from repentance from acts of disobedience and increases the disobedient one in further rebellion. As ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said: "The grave sins are four, one of which is despair of the mercy of God — mighty and exalted."
So God — mighty and exalted — gave the disobedient among His servants hope of forgiveness upon repentance, so that they would not despair on account of their sins, and so that they would cease from them and be called to repentance toward their Lord — mighty and exalted — and to His obedience. This is one of the two meanings.
The second is the hope of gardens and lofty stations and nearness to Him — mighty and exalted — among the ranks of the workers. God — exalted is He who speaks — said concerning the believers who are those devoted to prayer among His servants: «Successful indeed are the believers, who are humble in their prayers», up to His saying — mighty and exalted: «It is they who are the inheritors, who shall inherit» the verse.
And God — mighty and exalted — said: «And you will only be paid your full recompense on the Day of Resurrection». He thus informed that the recompense and reward for deeds is based on the highest rewards, so that they would seek that recompense and work accordingly.
…that they be granted that reward, in hope of those deeds.
So He, Exalted and Glorified, said, informing that they are the ones who hope, not those who are deluded: «Indeed, those who believed and those who emigrated and strove in the way of God — those have hope of the mercy of God» [2:218]. He thus placed the reward for workers among those who are workers.
So the one deluded by the mention of raja' (hope) supposes that delusion is itself hope, and so he persists in acts of disobedience to God, Exalted and Glorified, and supposes that this is thinking well of Him. But that is not thinking well. As Wahb said: "Thinking well of God is proportionate to the side of delusion." And it was said to al-Hasan: "A people say, 'We hope in God, Exalted and Glorified,' yet they neglect works." He said: "How far, how far! Those are their idle wishes in which they waver. Whoever hopes for a thing seeks it, and whoever fears a thing flees from it."
And a man entered upon Musma' ibn Yasir and said: "Last night I prostrated until I collapsed." The man said: "We hope in God, Exalted and Glorified." Musma' said: "How far, how far from one who hopes for a thing yet does not seek it, and whoever fears a thing flees from it."
So raja' (hope) is that which stirs of aspiration and longing regarding God, Exalted and Glorified, softening the soul of the disobedient one toward tawba (repentance), interposing between him and despair, and spurring the servant toward obedience to God, Exalted and Glorified, and exertion and striving and diligence, in hope of what He promised the workers.
And ghurra (delusion) is a deception from the nafs (soul) and the enemy by the mention of hope through tawhid (divine oneness), or through righteous forefathers, or through meager and feeble works. So the soul is pleased by that deception until his sins seem trivial to him, such that he supposes they will be forgiven, and so he hopes for forgiveness and persists in them without repenting.
This, then, is the difference between delusion and hope. And this is found in the natural disposition of servants in their worldly life: that when they squander work, they blame themselves and count it as negligence on their part. But if they sit idle from deeds while supposing that they will be given the reward, they count that from themselves as truly delusion.
I said: Where then should I place hope so that it does not become delusion?
He said: Indeed, God, Exalted and Glorified, made the disobedient fear through His wrath and His punishment, so that they would frighten their own souls by
their fear of Him, so that they would repent and turn to their Lord. And God, Exalted and Glorified, gave hope to the repentant among His servants for their abandonment of sins, so that they would not despair and persist in their sins; rather, raja' (hope) would impel the workers toward the exalted deeds that draw one near to Him.
So the believer in God, Exalted and Glorified, the intelligent one whose affair is sound, must place fear where God, Exalted and Glorified, placed it.
When he is tempted by a disobedient act, he should frighten his soul with that which God, Exalted and Glorified, has made fearful — namely, His punishment. If his caprice overcomes him and his soul refuses anything but persisting upon it, he should frighten his soul with that which God, Exalted and Glorified, has made fearful — namely, His wrath and His retribution — so that he abandons the disobedient act and repents of it after having committed it.
When his soul inclines toward a disobedient act, or he disobeys and his soul refuses anything but persisting in disobedience, he should reproach his soul and say to it: Indeed God is severe in punishment, and indeed His wrath has no remedy, and indeed His chastisement cannot be endured with patience. So he frightens his soul with the fear of God, where He commanded him to frighten his soul, so that he desists and repents.
And when he intends tawba (repentance) but despairing hopelessness opposes him against repentance, he should remind his soul of generosity and nobility, and make it hope in the pardon of God, Exalted and Glorified, and His bounty, His grace, His gentleness, His compassion, and His mercy, and what He promised the repentant — that He is Most Forgiving to the one who repents and believes, and that He is Forgiving and Merciful to the one who turns back to Him.
Do you not hear His saying, exalted be His mention: «Eat of the provision of your Lord and be grateful to Him — a good land and a forgiving Lord» [Saba':15]. How immense is that blessing upon us, for our Lord informed us, Exalted and Glorified, that He is a forgiving Lord, and He pardoned our stumbles, and He extended tawba (repentance) to us, and promised forgiveness upon it.
Do you not see that if He were to seize us for the first sin, or not accept repentance from us after the first time, or after two times, or after three times — for most people refuse to accept excuses and repentance from one another after three times. One of them says to the other: "I have pardoned you three times," or "I have overlooked your offense three times, so no more than three."
If our Lord, Exalted and Glorified, were like that, our life would not be pleasant. But rather, if His servant committed a thousand sins —
Has God, Almighty and Glorious, ever rejected the sincerity of one's qalb (heart) when one repented with a sincere tawba (repentance), even if he returned to it a thousand times? He did not punish him for what had passed of his sins, nor for what preceded of his offenses. So he recalls the generosity, the nobility, the vastness of pardon, and mercy.
If, at the moment of committing a sin, despair assails him in order to cut him off from acting in obedience, he counters it with raja' (hope) for forgiveness and acceptance, on account of the vastness of the mercy of God, Almighty and Glorious, and His encouragement of those who repent among His servants. He has also forbidden despair over the sinful repentant ones and those persisting among the monotheists, lest they cut themselves off from work through despair and acquire sins through despair along with their squandering of obedience to their Lord, Almighty and Glorious. As our Lord, Almighty and Glorious, said: «And do not cast yourselves with your own hands into destruction» [2:195].
Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib said: It refers to a man who commits a grave sin and then says, "He will not forgive me," and so he withholds from spending in the way of God, Almighty and Glorious, and they were forbidden from that.
So when he recalls to himself the punishment at the time of sins, it is as a warning so that he may repent from sins. And he recalls raja' (hope) at the time of tawba (repentance) in order to restrain himself from despair, and to be generous with repentance at the onset of the despairing despair that cuts one off from action, thinking that it will not be accepted from him. So he hopes for acceptance and forgiveness of sins, and is generous with repentance and with action in hope of mercy, pardon, clemency, and overlooking. He has thus placed khawf (fear) and raja' (hope) in the place where God, Almighty and Glorious, placed them, and has disciplined himself with the discipline of God, Almighty and Glorious, in His Book — neither becoming deluded nor despairing of the mercy of his Lord, Almighty and Glorious.
And whoever inverts these two meanings in his heart, recalling hope at the time of sins and forgetting fear and caution, so that his soul is soothed by the remembrance of hope, and his fear diminishes and his wariness departs, and he persists in acts of disobedience indulging in wishful thinking — that is one who is deluded regarding God, Almighty and Glorious, who disciplines himself with other than His discipline, who places hope in other than its proper place, and who abandons the employment of fear in its proper place when it is needed. This is the description of the deluded sinners among the monotheists.
His likeness in this is only the likeness of a slave whose master, whenever he punished his servants, punished them with the severest and gravest punishment, yet alongside that he is one of great mercy who pardons much and punishes and is severe in punishment.
So He said to His servant, despite the enormity of this peril: «His punishment is according to the measure of His pardon» [TN: likely paraphrase, not exact Quranic citation], "If you come to me on Sunday morning, I will give you [provisions], and I will suffice you, and I will clothe you, and I will shelter you, and I will marry you, and you shall be one. I will give you [what I promised]. But if you come to me on Sunday" — and if that were otherwise — "I would be wroth with you, and I would punish you with a severe, harsh punishment."
Then a pleasure presented itself to the servant. If it befell him, it would distract him from his master so that he would come on Saturday and delay his departure to Sunday. So he busied himself with his pleasure, and his soul hoped for his master's pardon and mercy, forgetting — despite the severity of his punishment — that merely remembering it without magnifying it would not restrain him from it, and that delaying his departure to Sunday on the day of Saturday would not overcome his heart against the sweetness of his pleasure.
So he preferred attaining his pleasure over obedience to his master in coming on Saturday, the day in which his master had promised him satisfaction and reward. He delayed his departure to his master until Sunday, lest his pleasure be missed, even though his master had already threatened him that if he came to him on Sunday, He would be wroth with him, deprive him of what He had promised him, and punish him with a more severe punishment. So he busied himself on Saturday with his pleasure, while his soul was at ease from what his soul reminded him of rajā' (hope). For the remembrance of hope had cut him off from the fear of punishment, such that he abandoned going on the day in which he was promised reward, and he hoped for reward and pardon along with the delay in going on the day in which he was threatened with wrath and retribution. He was forgetful of the punishment, abandoning the going so that [his master] might fulfill what he had promised him of reward on the day of Saturday, hoping for His pardon.
He says to himself: "I will go on Sunday, and my master will pardon me and be pleased, and he will give me what he promised me of wealth, and he will marry me, and he will employ me." This that his soul hoped for had caused him to forget the fear of his master — that which severed him from obedience to his master. Did he not feel pain? Did he not take caution? Was he not imperiling himself bodily, abandoning what would have been assurance and precaution for himself, exposing himself to [his master's] possession, humbling himself in seeking his master's satisfaction and the fulfillment of his reward?
And likewise, if his master had said to him: "If you perform such-and-such work, perfecting it completely, I will give you a thousand dinars. But if you ruin it, I will give you nothing and I will strike you a thousand lashes." Then a pleasure distracted him from perfecting it, and he deliberately ruined it because the pleasure he preferred could only be attained through the corruption of that work. So he preferred it, knowing full well that
what you have sold" — either out of dislike of mastering that, or dislike of being occupied away from it, "the work will be corrupted."
And he, along with that, is content of soul, with little in his nourishment or upon his body, and he purifies it and hopes for it a thousand dinars — without fearing what he is threatened with of a thousand lashes of the king's whip. He is one whom his own self has deluded, and so he placed raja' (hope) in other than its proper place, and removed the khawf (fear) that would impel him to obedience to his master away from its proper place. He did not place his master's promise and his master's threat — each one of them — in a place where he could benefit from it.
Likewise, the one deluded regarding God, Exalted and Glorious, who persists in that which necessitates deprivation of His nearness and descent into His punishment — content of soul, hoping for reward, without fearing the punishment. Is this not one deluded, gambling with his own soul? Even if his master is of immense pardon, He may do that for him and He may not do it. Has he not been deluded and gambled with his own soul, and his own soul deceived him and beguiled him? For punishment in the judgment against him is a certainty in which there is no doubt, and hoping for forgiveness without tawba (repentance) while persisting [in sin] is a doubt in which there is no certainty.
He is thus one who abandons what is reliable, deluded by a soul that has no guarantee behind it — he is not safe from there appearing to him from God, Exalted and Glorious, what he did not expect. That is because what is obligated upon him, he does not doubt it, just as God, Exalted and Glorious, described those who are deluded. It was said regarding them: «And there will appear to them from God what they had not expected» [al-Zumar 39:47]. He said: [damaged]
I said: Is not raja' (hope) extended to the monotheists even if their sins are great, and is not despair forbidden for them?
He said: Yes, but this is not its proper place in which it was placed. Rather, it is a place for khawf (fear) of God, Exalted and Glorious. A servant may be disobedient and deluded, and if despair assails him, he repels it with hope on account of monotheism — and so he repels with it the despair which is itself disobedience to his Master, lest he combine disobedience and despair together, thus becoming two sins. But if after that he soothes his soul by invoking hope, and it emboldens him to persist in the acts of disobedience to God, Exalted and Glorious, then he has been deluded regarding God, Exalted and Glorious. For God, Exalted and Glorious, made hope — which prevents despair — a remover [of despair], and made repentance and good works an impetus toward obedience and drawing near to Him, and made fear a preventer of complacency and delusion, a remover from persisting in sins, a preventer of committing them at the moment one is moved to commit them.
from the one who fears the station of his Lord and forbids the soul from caprice — did you not hear the saying of God, Exalted and Glorious: «So indeed, the Garden — it is the refuge» for the one who feared? So khawf (fear) is a preventer from sin before committing it, and a mover toward repentance after committing it. This, then, is the difference between raja' (hope) and delusion regarding God, Exalted and Glorious.
And God, Exalted and Glorious, has informed us, upon the tongue of His Prophet, that delusion will spread at the end of time upon the last of this community, through the invocation of hope in other than its proper place. He censured them for that through His Prophet, and He informed that this would occur at the departure of truth and its people and the triumph of falsehood over the last of this community. Al-Tirmidhi narrated it from Ma'qil ibn Yasar, who said that the Prophet said:
"There shall come upon people a time in which the Quran will wear out in their hearts as garments wear out upon the body. Their entire affair will be one of complacent security with no fear accompanying it. If one of them does well, he says: 'It shall be accepted from me.' And if he does evil, he says: 'It shall be forgiven for me.'"
So he informed me that this would occur at the departure of understanding and intellect concerning God, Exalted and Glorious, from their hearts, until there is no longer created in them comprehension of His Book or adherence to its discipline. They invert its disciplines, placing covetous hope in the place of fear, apprehension, and dread.
And with that, God, Exalted and Glorious, described the Christians in His Book — after finishing His reports about the Children of Israel — and said: «Then there succeeded after them successors who inherited the Book, taking the goods of this lower world» . Mujahid said: They are the Christians — they take whatever comes their way of worldly goods, whether lawful or forbidden, «and they say: 'It will be forgiven for us.'» They work sins and invoke forgiveness but persist in sin.
Sa'id ibn Jubayr said: They commit sins and say: "It will be forgiven for us." «And if similar goods come to them, they take them» — he said: sins.
Ibn 'Abbas, may God be pleased with him, said: «That they should not say about God anything but the truth» — they wish upon God what is not [so].
of God, Exalted and Glorious.
He informs you that they do not cease returning to their sins and do not repent of them; that they grow complacent and commit sins, and are deluded, persisting in them and repeating them, hoping for forgiveness (maghfira) while disobeying God, Exalted and Glorious. The generality of sinful Muslims are upon this — not out of certainty of forgiveness, but rather it is a delusion by which their souls are comforted, which they suppose to be sincere hope (raja'), yet it is self-deception regarding God, Exalted and Glorious, and a deceit leading away from the path of salvation. The description of the deluded ones from this community is as follows: if they sin, they say: "He will forgive us," and they are not alarmed and do not fear. If they do good, they say: "It will be accepted from us," and they feel no apprehension and no dread. He said: fear was removed from them, so they did not fear punishment for their sins, nor did they feel concern for their good deeds, nor were they wary regarding their works, so as to attain sincerity of acceptance before their Lord, Exalted and Glorious.
Chapter 6: The Self-Delusion of the People of Devout Practice (nusk), the Self-Delusion of the People of Knowledge, Their Categories, and Their Differences
I said: What is the self-delusion (ghurra) of one who displays devout practice and considers himself among the religious?
He said:
Among those people, self-delusion takes various differing categories: one deluded by knowledge, one deluded by a small amount of practice, one deluded by acuity in argumentation and disputation, one deluded by [God's] concealment [of sins] and [His] granting respite, and one deluded by the praise of people. As for those deluded by knowledge, they are diverse groups according to the degree of their ranks therein.
Among them is a group deluded by the abundance of narration and excellence of memorization while neglecting what is due as an obligation to God, Exalted and Glorious. The soul (nafs) of one of them makes him imagine — and his enemy [Satan] promises him — that the likes of him will not be punished, because he is among the scholars and the imams of the worshippers who preserve [knowledge] for the Muslims. His sins are made obscure to him in great number, so he does not see that one of his standing — whatever level of knowledge he has attained — could be guilty of ostentation, or self-admiration, or arrogance, or envy. Rather, [he supposes that] such striving is only undertaken by those who neither know the knowledge nor preserve it. Thus his fear and wariness of the punishment of God, Exalted and Glorious, diminishes, and he neglects self-examination (tafaqud), since he considers that the likes of him does not act according to base character traits, because he has been elevated by knowledge above that. So he does not suspect himself, and when he does not suspect himself, he does not scrutinize in himself the blameworthy character traits that are censured before
For as for its like, one has indeed neglected it, because the ignorant person does not examine it, and its roots are not extracted. And so he conceals within himself what God, exalted and glorified, detests — of riya' (ostentation) and 'ujb (self-admiration) and other things — and he absents himself and mocks and ridicules, and is arrogant toward the servants, and thinks ill of them, and gloats over misfortunes and afflictions, while he sees himself as free of all that, since he has not placed himself in the position of suspicion. So he examines his soul at the time of its calling to what God, exalted and glorified, detests. Yet if he had examined his soul along with all that, at the moment he exposed himself by calling to what God, exalted and glorified, detests — he counts himself among the most scrupulously devout (wari'in) of those who know God, exalted and glorified, while he is, in the sight of God, exalted and glorified, among the iniquitous and the ignorant of Him who neither fear Him nor dread His punishment.
And some of this group may be afflicted with many of their sins, yet that does not alarm them, and they do not flee from God, exalted and glorified, on account of it, seeing that they have stood as imams before the people, and that the likes of them will not be punished. This is the iniquitous group — those who have memorized the most and transmitted the most.
I said: What negates that in them?
He said:
What negates it is their knowledge that knowledge is a proof against them, and that God, exalted and glorified, has burdened them with what is most tremendous in proof against them, and has intensified against them through it the questioning on the Day of Resurrection. So one who neglects action and does not fulfill the obligatory right due to God, exalted and glorified, and abandons what is incumbent upon him in his outward and his inward — God, exalted and glorified, is more knowing of him and more severe in punishment than the ignorant person.
God, exalted and glorified, only made knowledge and taught it to His servants so that they may know through it what is most obligatory upon them and most beloved, and so they fulfill that for God, exalted and glorified; and so they know what God, exalted and glorified, has forbidden and avoid it; and so they fear His threat and hope for His abundant reward; and so they know the greatness of His punishment and dread it. If dread and fear of God, exalted and glorified, do not prevail over his qalb (heart), then he is ignorant among the scholars, because God, exalted and glorified, described the scholars with that, as He, exalted and glorified, said:
«Indeed, it is only those who have knowledge among His servants who fear God» [35:28].
It was said in the exegesis: Those who know God, exalted and glorified, the most are the most intense in khashya (reverential fear) of Him.
And Khalid al-Rab'i said: "The opening of the Psalms (al-Zabur): 'Wisdom is khashya (fearful reverence) of God, Mighty and Glorious.'"
And 'Abd Allah [ibn Mas'ud] said: "The knowledgeable one is not through abundance of narration, but rather the knowledgeable one is one who has fearful reverence of God, Mighty and Glorious."
And 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud said: "Sufficient as fearful reverence of God, Mighty and Glorious, is knowledge; and sufficient as being deluded by God is ignorance."
That is to say: the knowledgeable one is the one who fears God, Mighty and Glorious, and the deluded one is the ignorant one. The knowledgeable one preserves what he narrated, or preserves it with his preservation.
And [it is related concerning] Ibn Ma'rūr "His likeness is like the likeness of the dog: if you burden it, it pants, or if you leave it, it pants." [7:176]
And Dawud said: "O my God, what knowledge is there for one who does not have reverence of You? And what wisdom is there for one whose affair You have constricted?"
So whoever squanders the command of God, Mighty and Glorious, after having been knowledgeable, he is ignorant of God, Mighty and Glorious, since there is no greater audacity toward God, Mighty and Glorious, than that of the ignorant one. And had this person been truly knowledgeable of God, Mighty and Glorious, he would not have dared with something greater than the audacity of the ignorant one. So he is not knowledgeable; rather he is more severely ignorant of God, Mighty and Glorious, than the ignorant one who does not know knowledge at all.
And perhaps had he known as the deluded one who has more narrations knows what he has squandered of the command of God, Mighty and Glorious, he would be worse than the ignorant one.
As it is related from Abu al-Darda': "Woe to the one who does not know at all; and woe sevenfold to the knowledgeable one — had God willed, He would have taught him." That is to say: the proof against him is multiplied. And likewise the punishment.
So when you recall this and its like, wariness of God, Exalted and Glorious, increases along with knowledge, and it increases further.
Abu al-Darda' said: "Knowledge only increases one who acts upon it in awe, and it only increases one who does not act upon it in woe."
And God, Exalted and Glorious, said: «Indeed, those who were given knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, they fall upon their faces in prostration» … to His saying … «and they fall upon their faces weeping».
And God, Exalted and Glorious, said: «When the verses of the Most Merciful were recited to them, they fell in prostration».
And the proof of that is that the scholars before us and from this umma (community) were distinguished by awe and apprehension — their weeping along with their prostration when His verses are recited to them, and these are the greatest and noblest of knowledge — which negates his being deceived, casting away from him his false presumption, so that he yields to the understanding that he does not hold to the blameworthy traits in the sight of God, Exalted and Glorious, on account of the knowledge he has memorized.
So his delusion is negated thereby by his knowing that his memorization of knowledge does not suffice him without knowledge of its meanings, in terms of what it indicates regarding what is beloved to God, Exalted and Glorious, and what is disliked by Him, and what is beloved to God, Exalted and Glorious, and what is disliked by Him, until he knows the meanings of knowledge concerning what is beloved to God, Exalted and Glorious, and what is disliked by Him; and that if he knows its meanings, his knowledge thereof does not suffice him without acting upon what God, Exalted and Glorious, has obligated, and refraining from what God, Exalted and Glorious, has forbidden upon him after his knowledge of it.
So if he knows that this does not suffice, he commits his qalb (heart) to seeking knowledge of the meanings of knowledge, and after attaining knowledge he compels his nafs (soul) to act upon what God, Exalted and Glorious, loves and to abandon what God, Most High, dislikes. For knowledge of its meanings without acting upon it does not avail him, so he is not deceived; and he knows that what he knows is [indeed] a burden upon him, since he shares with the ignorant person in his ignorance after knowledge of the knowledge, and the proof against him is even greater since he is ignorant of its meanings after his knowledge — his memorization, his recitation, and his transmission of it. So he is in more severe tribulation than the ignorant person who does not know the recitation of knowledge, nor has memorized it, nor transmitted it. And he has also shared with the ignorant person in his squandering by not acting upon it after his memorization of the knowledge.
So when he commits his heart to [that], delusion is dispelled from him regarding what he has memorized of knowledge, and he devotes himself to seeking its meanings.