Psalms 26:5 Meaning I Hate the Assembly of Evildoers

Al-ḥubb fī-llāh wa-l-bughḍ fī-llāh: Loving and hating for God's sake A saying of the Prophet calls this pairing the strongest hold faith has. Everything depends on where the dislike points: at the harm being done, not at the person's worth or the fact that they grate on you. Someone can leave a room and still want good for everyone in it, and that keeps the leaving clean.

A person follows the way of their close friend: company shapes you quietly The Prophet said this and told people to look hard at whom they befriend. The shaping is slow and mostly invisible: jokes you would not have made a year ago, standards slipping an inch a month, a tone picked up without choosing it. By the time you sound like the room, you have usually stopped hearing the change in yourself.

ʿUzla: Keeping apart Al-Ghazali gave the manners of keeping apart a whole section of the Revival. A person with shaky footing stays out of certain rooms, the way someone quitting drinking stays out of bars. The distance says less about anyone else than about how easily you still get pulled along.

ʿUjb: Being pleased with yourself Al-Ghazali counts this among the traits that ruin a person from the inside. The danger sits right inside a clean stand: once you have named the crowd you refuse, you own a flattering picture of yourself that needs defending. A stand that began as care for your own life slowly turns into evidence that you are better than them.

Muḥāsaba: Taking account of yourself Al-Ghazali describes going over your day the way a shopkeeper goes over the books. The habit matters most right after a hard line has been drawn, because drawing it leaves you feeling settled and above review. Looking at your own day with the same sharp eye keeps the account honest, and most people find plenty waiting there.