and ask Allah to spare you affliction, and praise Him for the safety He has granted you.

I then reflected on this matter and found that its principal cause was Satan’s subtle scheming: he entices anyone who senses in himself exceptional intelligence and mental acuity, making him imagine that if, in his knowledge and beliefs, he were content with the plain meaning of the Sunnah and confined himself to its clear explanations, he would be no different from ordinary people and would be counted as merely one of the common multitude. In this way, he has driven them to excess in speculation and to introduce innovations contrary to the Sunnah and transmitted reports, so that they might set themselves apart from the ways of the masses and distinguish themselves in rank