Except for a correct action, in an outward representation.
Meaning, these correct actions which we mentioned are the inward ones, and their representation is:
A Truth and a Sincerity that came to us, by His Revelation and Sending.
The Truth and Sincerity are the recognition of the Ain, who is the Truth, as the Almighty said: {That Day, God will pay them in full their true religion, and they will know that God is the Manifest Truth}1. Meaning: He became clear and manifest.
(488) And the saying of the Lord Messenger — exalted be his glory: "The Ain is Truth just as I am truly the Messenger of God." He is the Truth whom I witnessed and believed in, and by whose recognition I distinguished between the Truth and the Falsehood.
And God is more just than that a defective action should please Him.
Its meaning: the recognition of this Truth is what pleases God the Almighty, according to the words of the Sublime: {And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me}2. The people of interpretation — outward and inward — have agreed that Worship is Recognition (al-ma’rifa). The "defective action" is what the people of the outward perform; it is the sickly act with which God is not pleased, nor is He pleased with them.
Nor the test of jihad with the sword — a momentous matter.
Its meaning: God is more just and more noble than to afflict you with jihad and fighting with the sword to kill. He only commanded you to strive (tujahida) with your soul, your tongue, and your science — if you are capable and the time allows — against the disbelievers. You should oppose them in everything and strive against them in word and deed. Their wealth, blood, and families are permissible to you; all of it is lawful for you, and nothing of all that is in the Abode is forbidden to you except the back of your believing brother, his wealth, and his sanctity, for the believer is entirely sacred.