﴿I created the jinn and humankind only that they should worship Me﴾ [al-Dhāriyāt 51:56]. He began with the lām of cause and concluded with the yāʾ of annexation.
In what He revealed to Moses, peace be upon him, He said, ‘Son of Adam, I created things for your sake, and I created you for My sake.’
He said to us through the tongue of His Messenger, God's blessings and peace be upon him, ‘Fasting belongs to Me.’
And he said, ‘Fasting has no likeness,’ for it belongs to Him, and ﴿nothing is like His likeness﴾ [al-Shūrā 42:11].
(Abasement before God and Might Attributed to Him)
The most abased of the abased is one who belongs to Him, mighty and majestic. The abasement of the abased is according to the one beneath whose might he is abased, and no might is greater than the Real's might. Thus none is more abased than one who belongs to God.
Whoever is abased before God is never abased before any other than God, unless he is abased before the attribute itself wherever he sees it, in a creature or in what is uncreated. Someone unaware of what this abased person witnesses imagines that he has been abased beneath the authority of this mighty person. He has only been abased beneath the authority of might, which belongs to God, and so has been abased only before the Real described by this attribute.
It is fitting for him to be abased, for before it every abased person within the world is abased. Some know this in their state of abasement, and some do not know.
(The Difference between Abasement and Disgrace)
As for disgrace, he is not disgraced if he belongs to God. Disgrace does not come from God to one who belongs to Him; it comes only to one who, in his witnessing, belongs to other than God.
For this reason Khadīja and Waraqa ibn Nawfal said to the Messenger of God, God's blessings and peace be upon him, ‘No, by God! God will never disgrace you,’ when he mentioned the beginning of the descent of the Nāmūs upon him. The disgrace abiding in the servant is only what he has brought upon himself
