Yet there be people who take to themselves compeers besides God, loving them as God is loved: in other words, those who worship besides God things, either humans of their own species, such as [their] partners, children, parents, ancestors, brothers, lovers, leaders, kings and others; or [who worship things] that are non-human, such as animals, inanimates and all their other properties by dedicating themselves to them, turning their attention to them, taking them into considering, preserving them, looking after them and their condition, thinking of [other] things of the same kind, loving them as they do God, that is, as God ought to be loved. Thus for them these things become equal to God in terms of [their] love and become compeers or associates of God from their point of view, or that they become their objects of love and their objects of worship and nothing else, and so they are for them their deities just as God is the Deity of creatures: they have thus appointed for themselves deities as compeers to the God of all creatures, the God of all worlds. but the believers love God more ardently, than any other, because they only love God. Their love for Him is not confounded with love of others and is not subject to change. They love things through [their] love of God and for God and in the measure that they find in these [things] a divine aspect, as some have stated: 'The Truth is our Beloved and creatures are our beloved, but if the two conflict, then the Truth is more beloved to us', in other words, if the divine aspect no longer resides in them because of their divergence from Him, our love for them is no more; or [it means that] they love [God] more than they love their deities because they love things in themselves for themselves and so inevitably their love changes [for these things] when they themselves change the accidents of their souls upon fear of perdition and the harm that the soul brings upon them. Believers love God through their spirits and their hearts, nay, through God and for God. Their love [for Him] does not change because it is selfless. They expend their spirits and their souls for the sake of His countenance and His approval, abandoning all of their desires for His desire, loving His acts even when they conflict with their caprices, as one of them said: 'I desire to connect with Him while He desires to abandon me, so I abandon what I desire for what He desires'.
