of those who uphold it, on the grounds that a common rationale they discern applies equally to the case addressed by the text and the case on which it is silent. I shall leave aside the principles of jurisprudence and the proofs in this matter. Examining the proofs is beyond the role of ordinary people. We shall set out the principal questions concerning particular rulings and the positions people take on their being obligatory or otherwise.
Continuation
(The Obligation of Purity and Intimate Address to the Real)
We say first that all Muslims, without dissent, agree that ritual purity is obligatory upon everyone required to pray when the time for prayer begins, and that it is obligatory upon a person of sound mind who has reached puberty. They differ over whether Islam is a condition for its being obligatory. This is the outward ruling.
As for the inward matter, which is inward purity, we say that the inward aspect and spirit of prayer is intimate address to the Real, exalted is He, as when He said, “I have divided prayer into two halves between Me and My servant,” and so on in the report. He thus mentions intimate address, in which the servant says something and God says something in reply.
Whenever the servant wishes to address his Lord intimately in any act, it is incumbent upon him to purify his heart of all that diverts him from that intimate address to his Lord in that act. If he lacks this purity at the time of his intimate address, he has failed to address Him intimately and has shown poor courtesy. He is more deserving of being driven away. God willing, in discussing the acts of purity I shall set out the divisions of this purity
