your sins, and I guarantee that none of your good deeds will be lost. Woe to you, O community of Muhammad! How swiftly you are rushing to ruin! The Companions of your Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, are still numerous among you; his clothes have not yet worn out, and his vessels have not yet been broken. By Him in whose hand is my soul, are you following a religion better guided than Muhammad’s religion? Or are you opening a door to misguidance?’ They replied, ‘By Allah, Abū Abd al-Rahmān, we intended nothing but good.’ He said, ‘How many a person intends good yet never attains it!’”1.

Reflect, then, on how Abdullāh ibn Masūd, may Allah be pleased with him, denounced these people of the circles, even though they had gathered in a circle of remembrance and a gathering of worship. This was because their remembrance of Allah and worship of Him did not conform to what had been transmitted and prescribed. This shows that what matters in worship, supplication, and remembrance is not how much one performs, but whether it conforms to the Sunnah. As Ibn Masūd, may Allah be pleased with him, said on another occasion: “Moderation in following the Sunnah is better than striving in innovation”2. Ibn Masūd, may Allah be pleased with him, did not object to their remembrance of Allah or their devotion to it; he objected only to their departure from the Sunnah in the form and manner of its performance, even though the expressions with which they remembered Allah were sound expressions established in the Sunnah. What, then, can be said of those who forsake the Sunnah in this matter altogether—in wording, manner of performance, and every other respect—such as the litanies recited by some people that were written by certain shaykhs of Sufi orders in various formulations and diverse styles, containing many forms of falsehood and kinds of misguidance, including polytheistic appeals through intermediaries, innovated expressions, and newly introduced remembrances,