and the innovations they have introduced, namely the man-made ceremonial trappings (1) and the contrived, burdensome restrictions: the affected ostentation in clothing, the collars (2) and the prayer rug, all for the sake of securing the officially allotted stipend (al-maʿlūm); the wearing of the baqiyār (3) and the oversized sleeves in the teaching session (4); flowery turns of phrase; and dashing, half-bowed, in front of the instructor (5) in order to safeguard their posts and to attract a steady flow of income.

In this way they have mixed others into the worship that is due to Allah alone and have deified something besides Him; their hearts have become corrupted without their noticing. They gather not for Allah but for the stipend, they dress for the stipend, and in most of their movements they keep an eye on the officials who control that stipend. Thus they have squandered much of Allah’s religion and consigned it to oblivion, whereas you have preserved what they wasted and straightened what they had bent.

You likewise confront the novelties (6) introduced by the heretics among the mendicants and the Sufis: their doctrine of indwelling (ḥulūl) and unification (ittiḥād), and their deification of created beings—groups such as the Yūnusiyya, the ʿArabiyya, the Ṣadriyya, the Sabʿīniyya, the Saʿdiyya (7), and the Tilimsāniyya. Every one of these factions has altered the religion of Allah