about a man who persistently neglected the witr prayer:

“He is an evil man.”

I offer this advice on the strength of knowledge and experience: beware of following a shaykh who takes himself as his own example, with no imam to whom the teaching he calls you to can be traced, through one shaykh after another, back to the Envoy, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Fear Allah! Fear Allah! Trusting in individuals is misguidance, and relying on personal opinions is innovation. Gentleness and flexibility in one’s conduct, together with adherence to the sunnah, are dearer to me than harshness and withdrawal accompanied by innovation. One does not draw near to Allah by abstaining from what He has not forbidden, just as one does not draw near to Him through deeds He has not commanded.

The scholars of hadith are the Envoy’s messengers; the jurists interpret the meanings the Envoy intended in his Book. Following cannot be complete without transmitted teachings, nor can those teachings be fully understood without an interpreter. Anything beyond these two is strained effort that brings no benefit.

The Companions of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, belonged to these two categories: transmitters and jurists. We know of no third category among them.

They were men of marketplaces, bargains, and trade—not of lodges or resting places for idleness. You who mingle with others and conduct business: practice religious scrupulousness. You who inhabit retreats and withdraw into seclusion: cut off the sources of covetousness.

You who frequent novices: beware of admiring the ways of those given to delusion and deception. In my view, a Sunni is not defined by love for Mu‘āwiyah and Yazīd, nor for Abū Bakr and ‘Umar; nor, in my view, are the Shiites defined by visiting shrines and reciting elegies and poems.