Jaʿfar said, “Tell us, O Teacher, about this compelling urge we feel. Never has a gnostic cried, ‘O Allah!’ without finding in his heart an unavoidable impulse that seeks the heights, turning neither right nor left. How are we to drive this impulse from ourselves—or do you have some remedy to dispel the necessity we experience?”

He replied, “My dear one, all that remains is bewilderment.” Then he struck his head with his hand, stepped down, and an uncanny silence prevailed for a while. Later he remarked, “Al-Hamadhānī has perplexed me.” (1)

Among Abū al-Maʿālī’s writings are: the book Nihāyat al-Maṭlab fī al-Madhhab (The Ultimate Goal in the [Shāfiʿī] School) (2), in eight volumes; the book al-Irshād fī Uṣūl al-Dīn (Guidance in the Principles of Religion) (3); the book al-Risālah al-Niẓāmiyyah fī al-Aḥkām al-Islāmiyyah (The Niẓāmiyyah Epistle on Islamic Rulings) (4); the book al-Shāmil fī Uṣūl al-Dīn (The Comprehensive Work on the Principles of Religion) (5); the book al-Burhān fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh (The Proof in Legal Theory); the book Madārik al-ʿUqūl (Perceptions of the Intellect), which he did not complete; the book Ghiyāth al-Umam fī al-Imāmah (The Relief of Nations on the Caliphate) (6); the book Mughīth al-Khalq fī Ikhtiyār al-Aḥaqq (Succor for Creation on the Choice of the Most Worthy) (7); and the book Ghuniyat al-Mustarshidīn on disputed questions (The Sufficiency of the Seekers of Guidance) (8).