Do not covet that in which God has preferred some of you above others, in the way of perfections that are appointed in accordance with the original forms of preparedness, for every preparedness entails in itself from pre-eternity a perfection and a felicity that corresponds to it. The actualisation of such a specific perfection to some other [than the one specified] is impossible, which is why it is referred to with the expression 'to covet', which is when a person demands what cannot be actualised for him because of the lack of any similarity. To men, that is, to those individuals who have arrived, a share from what they have earned, by the light of their original preparedness, and to women, that is, the deficient ones who fall short of the arrival, a share from what they have earned, commensurate with their preparedness. And ask God of His bounty, that is, ask Him to effuse a perfection that is entailed by your preparedness through purgation and purification so that nothing should come between you and Him that would cause you to be veiled and to thus be chastised by the fires of privation from Him. God is ever Knower of all things, that are unknown to you latent as they are in potentiality in your preparednesses, and answers your call in accordance with what is appropriate for you, as He says: And He gives you of all that you ask of Him [Q. 14:34], that is, [He responds to you] in the tongue of [your] preparedness by which none call on Him but He responds to them, as He says: And your Lord has said, 'Call on Me and I will respond to you' [Q. 40:60].
