It is not piety that you turn your faces to the east, of the world of the spirits, and to the west, of the world of [physical] bodies, for that is delimitation and veiling. True piety is [that of the one who believes in God and the Last Day and the angels], the piety of the affirmers of the Oneness who believed in God and the final return at the station of the union - for the affirmation of the Oneness at the station of the union requires sempiternal subsistence, which is the real final return - and who witnessed the union at the [level of the] differentiation of multiplicity and did not veil themselves with the union from the differentiation, that is the inner aspect of the world of the angels and the outer aspect of the world of the prophets, and the Book [and the prophets], [the Book] that combines the outer aspect, by means of rulings, with gnosis and teaches the knowledge of uprightness, [those who believe in that Book] and [who] then become upright after completing the affirmation of Oneness, both at the [level of] union and [that of] differentiation by means of the works mentioned. For uprightness is essentially when all the faculties [of an individual] remain within their [respective] limits by the divine command, because of their illumination by the light of the spirit upon that individual's verification of God at the station of subsistence following annihilation, that being the station of justice, so that these [faculties] end up residing in the shadow of the Truth, devoted in its totality to the path of Oneness; [and who gives of his substance,] however cherished, in other words, when he [himself] is in need of it and guards it avariciously, as [ʿAbd Allāh] Ibn Masʿūd said: 'That you should give of it when you are sound [in health] and protective of it, hoping to live [long] and fearful of being poor; do not wait until [death] reaches the throat and [only] then offer, "this is for him and that is for the other"'. God, exalted be He, said: But prefer others [to themselves] though they be in desperate poverty [Q. 59:9]. Or [the phrase ʿalā ḥubbihi may be understood] out of love for God, lest his heart be occupied by anything other than Him, and because God, exalted be He, is satisfied with its being given; or [it means] out of the love of giving, that is, out of the goodness of [one's] soul, for the munificent person is the one who gives happily and out of the goodness of his soul. From His words and gives of his substance to where He says [to near kin and orphans and the needy and the traveller and beggars, and for slaves, and who observes prayer] and pays the alms, out of virtuous abstention, which is the perfection of the appetitive faculty and its remaining within its limit for what concerns it. As for His saying: and those who fulfil their covenant [when they have engaged in a covenant], out of justice that is the concomitant of wisdom, which is the perfection of the faculty of speech, since if it does not know the consequences of treachery and betrayal and the benefit of the virtue of countering the two, it would not fulfil a covenant; as for His saying, those who endure with fortitude severity, hardship, [such as] poverty, harm, sickness and terminal illness, and peril, namely, war, [enduring it] out of valour, which is the perfection of the irascible faculty, they, the ones described in terms of all of these virtues, the ones who are fixed in the station of uprightness, are the ones who were true, to God, in the abodes of disengagement, by virtue of their acts which are true piety, and they are the ones who are fearful, of loving anyone other than God, even the soul, [those] who are disengaged from the coverings of the initial creation and of nature. 'Substance' (māl) may be interpreted as [meaning] knowledge, which is the substance of the heart because on account of it [the heart] becoms stronger and self-sufficient. In other words, he gave away knowledge even though it is beloved to the near kin of the spiritual faculties, because of their nearness to it, and [beloved to] the orphans of the ego-centric faculties, because of their severance from the light of the spirit, which is the true father, and [beloved] to the needy of the natural faculties by virtue of these [faculties] being ever subservient to the rewards of the body and possessing knowledge of virtuous character traits and meritorious behaviour. When such a person [who gives knowledge] has imbibed spiritual knowledge and knowledge of character traits, manners and the means to [acquire] livelihood, both generally and in an undifferentiated mode, and is finished with his own self, he then bestows [such knowledge] upon the travellers, that is, the wayfarers, and the beggars, that is, the seekers of knowledge and [expends it] for the sake of freeing those enslaved by this world and by [their] lusts from their bondage by means of admonition and sermon and the observance of the prayer of presence, in other words, [by] maintaining [the performance of] it through witnessing, and pays the alms that fortify him against casting his eyes unto the other and against the distractions of passing inclinations [achieving this] through denial and the effacement of attributes. [And by those who fulfil the covenant is meant] those who fulfil the pre-eternal covenant by their adherence to the affirmation of the Oneness and the annihilation of [their] essence and actual existence; and [by those who endure is meant] those who endure with fortitude the severity of being ever in need of God and the harm of the breaking of the soul and the repressing of caprice and the peril of battling against Satan: they are the ones who are true to God by fulfilling His covenant and by the resoluteness and determination of [their] wayfaring; they are the ones who guard against associating [others with Him] and who are exalted above all the rest.