the first brought. Exalted is God with great loftiness! For the Wise One [God] does not undergo change from one state to another.

He is far too Exalted and High to place His pleasure in the hunger of a liver [fasting], in travel [Hajj], in the movements of limbs [prayer], or in fighting [Jihad], or to place His wrath in the eating of meat or the drinking of wine which has its own justification (ya‘ūdu ‘udhruhu). What wisdom would there be in God burdening His creation with a task from which they do not benefit, only to punish them if they fall short in that task?

Rather, True Justice is that He made Gnosis (Ma‘rifah) obligatory upon them and made the reward for it paradise; and He forbade ignorance and denial, making the punishment for it [hell]. All that the religious laws have brought—of permissions, prohibitions, commands, and interdictions—are Persons (Ashkhāṣ) pointing to a Single Meaning (Ma‘nā Wāḥid). Thus, there are persons whom God commanded to be known and obeyed, and persons whom God forbade from disassociating from them. All of that calls toward a Single Meaning and points toward a Single Meaning in the esoteric (Bāṭin). This is present with us through the submission to the Truthful Ones (al-Ṣādiqīn)—peace be upon them—as the principles have been established upon insight (naẓar). He Almighty said in His Book:

{O Shu'ayb, does your prayer command you that we should leave what our fathers worshipped?} (Hud: 87).