As for the first level: it is the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah—may blessings and peace be upon him—both inwardly and outwardly, in word and in deed, concerning matters of knowledge and action alike. This alone must be learned and taught, commanded and performed in accordance with the dictates of the Sharīʿah, whether as an obligation or a recommendation.

Predominant in this category are the deeds of the earliest forerunners—the Emigrants and the Helpers—and of all who have followed them with excellence.

The second level, by contrast, is found in abundance along the paths of later generations who claim affiliation with knowledge or devotion, and among the general populace as well. Such people are better than those who perform no righteous deed at all, whether prescribed or otherwise, or whose deeds belong to the realm of the forbidden—unbelief, lying, betrayal, ignorance, and many other forms besides.

Thus, someone who undertakes an act of worship that contains a degree of disapproval—such as continuous fasting without a break, the wholesale abandonment of desires (1), and the like—or who seeks to enliven nights that carry no particular distinction, such as the first night of Rajab and similar occasions, may well be in a better state than the idle person (2) who shows no eagerness for Allah’s worship and obedience.

Indeed, many of those who censure these practices (3) are themselves indifferent to the worship of Allah—be it beneficial knowledge, righteous action, or even one of the two. They neither love such pursuits nor aspire to them. Yet, because they are incapable of engaging in what the Law prescribes (4), they divert their energies to these matters instead. By their actual condition they repudiate both what is prescribed and what is not, while with their words they can do no more than denounce what is unprescribed.