Sublime

Using his unquestioned religious authority, Muhammad instituted a mandatory tithe called zakat, which every member of the Ummah had to pay according to his or her means. Once collected, the money was then redistributed as alms to the community’s neediest members. Zakat literally means “purification,” and was not an act of charity but of religious d

8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;+ 9it is not from works, so no one may boast.

162 But those among them who are well-grounded in knowledge, and the Believers, believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you: and (especially) those who establish regular prayer and practise regular charity and believe in Allah and in the Last Day: To them shall We soon give a great reward.

Faith is a deeply held conviction that there is a higher meaning in life that cannot be proved by outer events.

those who are steadfast in seeking the favour of their Lord, and pray regularly and spend secretly and openly out of what We have provided them with, and ward off evil with good. Theirs shall be the final abode.

An individual enters the final stages of the Way when the nafs begins to release its grip on the qalb, thus allowing the ruh—which is present in all humanity, but is cloaked in the veil of the self—to absorb the qalb as though it were a drop of dew plunged into a vast, endless sea. When this occurs, the individual achieves fana: ecstatic, intoxicat

“With My punishment I visit whom I will; but My Mercy extends to all things. That (Mercy) I shall ordain for those who do right, and practise regular charity, and those who believe in Our Signs;—

“Our Lord! We have indeed believed: forgive us, then, our sins, and save us from the agony of the Fire;”