Over a wrath made manifest by His servants' deeds,
Which, praise belongs to God, passes away from Him and from them.
My Book is none other than my essence, so understand:
None is like it but I; proclaim it or conceal it.
﴿Rather, the human being is an insight against himself﴾ [al-Qiyāma 75:14]. Look, then, intimate friend, to what stirs within your breast. Do not look at incidental occurrences, for you are according to what stirs within you. If faith stirs, you are a believer; if what stirs is turning that which necessitated faith toward something not required by the ruling's outward sense, you are according to that, and with it your life will be sealed.
Do not look at what appears of you to people, and rely only on what stirs within your breast. Nothing stirs within your breast except what the Book has previously established that your life will be sealed with.
But people are heedless of what I have drawn to their attention. None can repel His command, and ﴿none can reverse His ruling﴾ [al-Raʿd 13:41]. What stirs within your breast is identical to the self-disclosure of the affair that belongs to you and your allotted portion of true existence.
Someone said concerning scrupulousness, ‘I have seen nothing easier for me than scrupulousness: whenever anything stirred within my soul concerning something, I left it.’ This is supported by the Prophet's saying, God's blessings and peace be upon him, ‘Leave what causes you doubt for what does not cause you doubt,’ and his saying, ‘Ask your heart for a ruling, even if those giving rulings have given you theirs.’
(Knowledge of Known Things and the Book's Precedence)
Know that God, exalted is He, wrote
