stood behind their claims but conjecture and fancy; those states of annihilation, effacement, sobriety, and intoxication have no real existence at all—they are nothing more than fleeting notions and whispered delusions. Not a single Ṣiddīq, nor any Companion, nor an imām from the Successors ever voiced the expressions they use.

If you press them to substantiate their assertions, they despise you and say, “You are veiled.” Yet if you hand them the reins, the faith you possess will become confused; your spiritual state will plummet into bewilderment and impossibility; you will look upon the worshippers with an eye of contempt and regard the people of Qur’an and hadith as distant, saying, “Poor souls—veiled ones.”

There is no might and no power except with Allah.

True tasawwuf, true devotion, true spiritual discipline, journeying, and love are what came down to us from the Companions of Muhammad ﷺ: being content with Allah, clinging to God-fearingness, striving in the path of Allah; adorning oneself with the etiquette of the Sacred Law—reciting with measured tones and reflection, standing in prayer with awe and humility, fasting at its appointed time and breaking the fast at its appointed time; giving freely, excelling in altruism, teaching the common folk, showing humility to the believers and dignity toward the unbelievers. Even then, Allah guides whom He wills to a straight path.

A scholar stripped of tasawwuf and devotion is an empty shell, just as a ṣūfī devoid of knowledge of the Sunnah slips off the straight path.

Ibn al-Aʿrabi was among the scholar-sufis, and you will see that he accepted none of the group’s technical terms unless supported by evidence.

He died in Mecca in the month of Dhu’l-Qaʿdah, in the year 340 AH.

He had reached ninety-four years and some months.

ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-ʿAlawī and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qurashī informed us, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿImād informed us, ʿAbd Allah ibn Rifāʿah informed us, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan