Having Good Thoughts of Allah

Dar as-Sunnah bind two texts of the third-century compiler al-Hafiz Abu Bakr Ibn Abi al-Dunya into a single volume: Having Good Thoughts of Allah and Having True Reliance on Allah. The two are presented as interlinked acts of worship of the heart, since the servant who thinks well of his Lord is the one able to rely on Him alone. The book turns on the hadith qudsi in which Allah says, I am as My servant thinks of Me, and on the verse of Surah al-Baqarah promising that He is near and answers the one who calls. Ibn Abi al-Dunya gathers narrations and the sayings of the early generations rather than arguing at length, which is the form his many short works take. Ninety-six pages.