Say: 'Come, I will recite that which your Lord has made a sacred duty for you: having proven that in terms of what they deem licit and make illicit idolaters are [merely] following their caprices, since idolatry in itself is simply the worship of caprice and Satan - and so when they became veiled in the attributes of the soul from the attributes of the Truth and made caprice master over them, worshipping it and obeying its commands and its prohibitions in terms of what it [caprice] deems licit or illicit - He makes it clear that the act of deeming things licit or illicit that is pursued regarding these has been commanded by God, exalted be He; and given that the discourse is directed at them with regard to their prohibiting what are goodly things, He enumerates the things that are forbidden in order that the permitted things be inferred therefrom. By forbidding genera of vices, He has encompassed all the types of excellent things. He begins by forbidding the vice of the speech faculty, which is the noblest of them [the faculties] - for the vice thereof is the worst of grave sins, entailing as it does all [other] vices, in contrast to the vices of its two sister-faculties, the bestial and the predatory - and says: that you associate nothing with Him, since idolatrous association is the result of its mistaken consideration and its shortcoming in employing the intellect and perceiving the proof. He then follows it with [the mention of] being dutiful to parents. For knowledge of the rights due to them comes after the knowledge of God in terms of existentiation and lordship, as they [the parents] are two causes that are close in terms of existence and nurture and two means which God, exalted be He, has made loci for the manifestation of His two attributes of existentiation and lordship. That is why he [the Prophet?] said, 'Whoever is obedient to his parents is indeed obedient to God and His Messenger'. Disobedience to them comes after idolatry, since ignorance of what is due to them can only be out of the ignorance of what is due to God and of the knowledge of His attributes. Then [He mentions] the prohibition against the slaying of one's children for fear of poverty. To do that can only be the result of ignorance and blindness concerning His causation of provision for every creature and [ignorance of] that the provisions of servants are in His hand, expanding provision for whomever He wishes or restricting [it], and the result of being veiled from the mystery of [divine] predetermination, not knowing thus that provisions are predetermined in relation to lifespans, much like the predetermination of terms of life. And so the most important of these [vices] occurs as a result of its [the faculty's] erroneous knowledge of God's essence. The second [of these vices] is the result of its error regarding the knowledge of His attributes. The third is the result of [the error regarding] the knowledge of His acts. Thus only a degenerate who is veiled from the essence of God, exalted be He, and from His attributes and acts commits these three [types of] vices, and these veilings are the mother of all vices and the roots thereof. He then illustrates the vice of the bestial faculty, because its vice is more manifest and long-standing, saying: and that you do not draw near any acts of lewdness, deeds that are despicable and vile to the intellect, whether it be manifest, such as engaging in illicit fornication in inns, drinking wine and the consumption of usury, or concealed, such as seeking acts of lewdness such as those mentioned, having the intention and the resolve to [commit] them or hiding them, as in the case of theft or engaging in forbidden things secretly. He then points out the vice of the predatorial faculty, saying: and that you do not slay the life which God has made sacred, that is to say, through retaliation or disbelief. He concludes the narrative with His words: This, the avoidance of the three genera of the vices of the soul, is what He has charged you with that perhaps you will understand: in other words, only the people of the intellect are able to avoid them. The one who commits them is one without [the faculty of] reason (ʿaql). He then wishes to illustrate that the three vices by their confluence entail the vice of injustice, which is the greatest of these [vices] and the sum thereof, just as the virtues [of the soul] entail justice, which is the perfection of these [virtues] and the one that subsumes them [all]. Thus He says: