– among them is to occupy the mind with matters that man has not been charged to investigate and whose full comprehension he has not been granted. This is surplus knowledge that brings no benefit, such as speculating about the how-ness of the Divine Essence and His attributes—realms to which human intellects have no access.

– Another is to ponder delicate crafts that yield no good but rather harm, like brooding over chess, music, and the various forms and images that preoccupy people.

– Another is to busy oneself with sciences which, even if sound, would add neither perfection nor honor to the soul: probing the minutiae of logic, mathematics, natural science, and most of the philosophers’ disciplines. Were a person to master them completely, he would still not be perfected, nor would his soul be purified.

– Another is to dwell on carnal desires and pleasures and the ways to obtain them. Though the soul may taste a fleeting sweetness in such thoughts, they bring no lasting outcome; their harm, in this world before the next, is many times greater than their delight.

– Another is to imagine what never was: “If I became a king, or unearthed a treasure, or owned an estate, what would I do? How would I manage, take, give, and exact revenge?” Such day-dreams are the thoughts of the low-minded.

– Another is to track the minute details of people’s conditions—their comings and goings, entrances and exits, and all that attends them. These are the reflections of souls idle and empty of Allah, His Messenger, and the Final Abode.

– Another is to devise ever subtler stratagems and tricks for reaching one’s aims and cravings, whether lawful or unlawful.

– And another is to immerse oneself in the varieties, meters, and modes of poetry, in panegyric and invective alike.