THE CONCEPT OF RELIGION

THE CONCEPT OF RELIGION station, Zaid inviting Bakr into his home). Combining these excerpts into a single paragraph to define love as “embracing, inviting, and heartfelt affection” may seem comprehensive. In reality, however, a serious mistake has been made. The true essence of love and its outward expressions have been placed on exactly the same level. It is as though love becomes genuine only when a person gathers all three of these elements within himself. Yet it is much possible that, in a given case, only the last element—heartfelt affection—is present, while the other two are neither found in that person nor consciously pursued, and even then the love may still be complete in the fullest sense. The difference between reality and a requisite is that reality is, as the direct demand of the essential thing, absolutely necessary, while a requisite is not required in such an absolute sense. Instead, it is needed through another means: if the relation to that means exists, then it becomes necessary; if not, it does not. For example, when it is said that “the requisite of faith is that a person should give truthful testimony,” this does not mean that every believer must, in some way, appear in court and give truthful testimony—and that without this, their faith is incomplete. It simply means that when called to testify, he should not lie but tell the truth about what he knows. This is why, when the author considers a single term to