The epistle, then, deals with the book al-Iḥyāʾ.
He writes: “By Allah’s very life, it more closely resembles the extinction of the religious sciences.” We then proceeded to the remainder of the letter.
He said: “When he produced his book al-Iḥyāʾ he set out to speak about the sciences of spiritual states and the cryptic symbols of the Sufis, yet he was neither familiar with them nor skilled in understanding them. Consequently he fell headlong: he found no resting-place among the scholars of the Muslims, nor any footing among the states of the ascetics. He then stuffed his book with lies against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; I do not know of any book on the face of the earth that contains more fabrications attributed to the Prophet than it. After that he wove into it the doctrines of the philosophers, the ciphers of al-Ḥallāj, and the notions in the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity—people who hold that prophethood is an acquired skill. To them a prophet is nothing more than an upright individual who adopts noble character, shuns its vile opposites, disciplines himself so that no passion overcomes him, and then leads mankind by means of that character. They deny that Allah sends a messenger to His creation and claim that miracles are mere tricks and sleight-of-hand.
“Yet Allah has honored Islam, clarified its proofs, and cut off all excuse with decisive evidence. The likeness of someone who seeks to defend Islam with the doctrines of the philosophers and the conclusions of formal logic is that of a person who washes a garment with urine.
“Next he drives his discourse forward—thundering, flashing, promising and enticing—until, when people’s souls have become eager for it, he says: ‘This is from the science of practice (ʿilm al-muʿāmala), whereas what lies beyond it—the science of unveiling (ʿilm al-mukāshafa)—may not be set down in books. This belongs to the secret of the breast that we have been forbidden to disclose.’
“This is exactly how the bāṭiniyya (esotericists) and the people of deceit and intrigue in the religion operate: they belittle what is present and hang souls upon what is absent. It only confounds the beliefs of hearts and weakens the united word of the community. If a man actually believes what he has written, branding him an unbeliever is not far-fetched; and if he does not believe it, he is perilously close to misguiding others.
“As for what you mentioned about burning the book, by my life, once it has spread among those who do not …”