so Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī offered him as a sacrifice, saying: “O people, offer your sacrifices—may Allah accept them from you! I am sacrificing al-Jaʿd ibn Dirham, for he claimed that Allah did not take Abraham as a close friend, nor did He speak directly to Moses.” He then came down and slaughtered him.

What the Quran and Sunnah indicate, and what the early generations of this community, its leading scholars, and all the masters of the spiritual path agreed upon, is that Allah loves and is loved. Thus, those speculative theologians who embraced Sufism, such as Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī, Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī, and others like them, agreed with them on this. Abū Hāmid defended this position in al-Ihyāʾ and elsewhere. Likewise, Abū al-Qāsim discussed it in al-Risāla according to the Sufi approach, as did Abū Tālib al-Makkī in his book entitled Qūt al-qulūb (Nourishment of the Hearts).

Although Abū Hāmid followed the Sufis in this, he based his position on