31 Preface ۞ مُنيبينَ إِلَيهِ وَاتَّقوهُ وَأَقيمُوا الصَّلاةَ وَلا تَكونوا مِنَ المُشرِكينَYusuf AliTurn ye back in repentance1 to Him, and fear Him: establish regular prayers, and be not ye among those who join gods with God,-“Repentance” does not mean sackcloth and ashes, or putting on a gloomy pessimism. It means giving up disease for health, crookedness (which is abnormal) for the Straight Way, the restoration of our nature as God created it from the falsity introduced by the enticements of Evil. To revert to the simile of the magnetic needle (n. 3540 above), if the needle is held back by obstructions, we must restore its freedom, so that it points true again to the magnetic pole.