And the unqualified statement that “the Sufi follows his heart” is an example of what these Sufis were censured for, to the point that they were counted among the people of innovation. They introduced into the path to Allah things that Allah had not prescribed, so they fell within the scope of His words, Exalted is He:

“Or do they have partners who have prescribed for them a religion which Allah has not permitted?”
[Surah al-Shūrā 21]

An example is what al-Khallāl related through his chain of transmission from ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, who mentioned the Sufis and said: “Do not sit with them or with the proponents of speculative theology. Rather, keep company with those who possess chests of books, for they are like mines and fissures: one yields a pearl, another a piece of gold.” It is also related from al-Shāfiʿī that he said: “If a man became a Sufi at the beginning of the day, noon would not arrive before he had become a fool.”

Abū al-Qāsim said: I heard Muhammad ibn al-Husayn—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—say: I heard ʿAbd al-Wāhid ibn Bakr say: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Sūfī say: Ruwaym was asked about what the Sufis experience during listening. He replied: “They witness meanings that elude others, and these beckon to them: