doubts that have scorched my heart.’ The shaykh then instructed him in the remembrance of Allah and spiritual seclusion. He devoted himself to worship for a time, and when he emerged from seclusion, he said, ‘My master, by Allah, the truth lies only in what these anthropomorphists say.’”

This is the substance of the account, or something to that effect. The Muʿtazilites call anyone who affirms the divine attributes an anthropomorphist. This man had believed in negating the attributes; he did not believe that the heart could turn upward toward the Creator, or anything of that kind. When his heart became free of those beliefs and desires—which are mere conjecture and what the soul desires—he acquired, through his innate disposition, necessary knowledge that agreed with the position of those who affirm the attributes.

Nevertheless, the Sufi shaykhs endowed with spiritual knowledge agree that