They ask you about the sacred month and fighting in it. Say “Fighting in it is a grave thing; but to bar from God's way and disbelief in Him and the sacred mosque and to expel its people from it-that is graver in God's sight; and sedition is graver than slaying.” Among the acts of disobedience some are worse than others and more intractable. Bad manners at the door do not have the same consequences as they do on the [more intimate] carpet. When the error occurs through the lower self the effect upon [the lower self] is through the deferrred punishment which is burning iḥtirāq [in the hereafter]. When the heart errs the punishment is immediate through separation firāq. The effect of heedlessness on hearts is more serious than the harm caused to the lower selves by error for surely the lower self is kept from good fortune ḥaẓẓ but the heart is kept from the Real ḥaqq. They will not cease to fight against you until they turn you from your religion if they are able; and whoever of you turns from his religion and dies disbelieving-their works have failed in this world and the hereafter. Those are the inhabitants of the fire abiding therein. The allusion in this is to the people of heedlessness when they seek to lure you away and want to turn you toward their heedlessness. They will only be content when you break the pact of your spiritual desire irāda by returning to your previous state. Anyone who breaks fasakha his pledge to God deforms masakha his heart.
