so my advice to my believing brothers who affirm Allah’s oneness is this: do not expose your unspoiled hearts to the discourse of speculative theologians, nor lend your ears to the fables of the Sufis. Earning a livelihood is better than Sufi idleness, and remaining with apparent meanings is better than the deep speculations of those who profess speculative theology.

I have experienced the ways of both groups: the one ends in doubt, the other in extravagance.

In my view, the speculative theologians are better than the Sufis, because, alongside rigorous inquiry, the speculative theologians aim to increase doubts in certain individuals, whereas the Sufis’ course leads to imagining difficulties. Likening Allah to creation is the ultimate falsehood—indeed, the very essence of impossibility.

What lowers the shaykhs in my estimation, however highly people regard their standing, lineage, learning, and distinction, is nothing other than the statement one of them makes when confronted with the requirements of revealed law:

“My provision is such and such.”

He is referring to a path he has prescribed for himself that departs from the course of revealed law. Such a man has invented a path, and everyone who invents one is an innovator, even if it consists in abandoning voluntary acts of worship, for persistently neglecting the sunnah practices is a sign of being deprived of divine aid.

Ahmad, may Allah be pleased with him, said when asked