—a soul that goads him to commit what is forbidden and to neglect what is obligatory—except for those whom Allah the Exalted safeguards and shelters.
7 – It also acknowledges that Allah alone exercises absolute control over His creation and that the guidance or misguidance of hearts rests entirely in His hand: “You cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He wills” (al-Qasas 28:56). This statement serves as the rationale for the preceding plea to seek refuge and protection from Allah alone.
8 – It contains an affirmation of the two testimonies of faith, which are the key to Islam, its essence and foundation; a person is not deemed a Muslim unless he professes them sincerely from the heart.
9 – Al-Nawawī said: “Know that this sermon is sunnah; if one omits it altogether, the marriage contract is nonetheless valid by unanimous agreement of the scholars.”
10 – It has been related from Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī that the sermon is obligatory, yet the critical scholars do not regard his dissent as a credible disagreement, nor does it undermine the consensus. Imām al-Ḥaramayn stated that the investigators maintain that those who deny qiyās (analogical reasoning) are not counted among the scholars of the ummah and the bearers of the sacred law, for they oppose what is established by widespread, uninterrupted transmission; the greater part of the sharīʿah is derived through ijtihād, and explicit texts do not cover one-tenth of it.
Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, however, said: “Abū Manṣūr’s chosen view, and what he deemed the correct position of the school, is that Dāwūd’s dissent is to be taken into account. This ultimately became the settled stance, for the later Shāfiʿī imams—such as al-Ghazālī and al-Muḥāmalī—cited Dāwūd’s position in their works; had they not considered it weighty, they would not have mentioned it.” This quotation ends the passage drawn from Ibn al-Subkī’s Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā.
11 – Because this important sermon gathers praises of Allah, the request for His aid, the appeal for refuge from evils, and the recitation of those noble verses, a person should place it before