This question—namely, giving preference to certain acts of devotion over others—requires a clear grasp of the criteria by which such preference is determined, as well as an awareness that, for many deeds, those criteria change with changing circumstances; without this, great confusion ensues. There are people who, once they come to believe that a particular practice is recommended and superior, guard it more zealously than they guard the obligations, until the matter degenerates into mere whim, partisan fanaticism, and pre-Islamic tribal zeal. You can see this in someone who adopts one of these practices and makes it the emblem of his school. And among them are those who, when they witness the abandoning