things in our time are two: a scholar who acts upon his knowledge, and a knower of Allah who speaks from his spiritual reality.”

Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Sulamī said: “I heard my grandfather, Abū ‘Amr ibn Nujayd, say: ‘Any spiritual state that does not arise from knowledge brings its possessor more harm than benefit.’” He was asked about Sufism and replied: “Patient adherence to the commands and prohibitions.”

The reason they refer to the revealed Law as “knowledge” is that these people devote themselves to spiritual aspiration, intention, action, and spiritual states—these are their distinctive concerns. Yet one of them may sometimes act without religious knowledge, relying instead on what he perceives and finds himself desiring in his heart, even though it is neither prescribed nor commanded. This is an affliction that frequently befalls many of them: giving precedence to what they know through spiritual taste and experience over what religious knowledge requires, and acting upon spiritual taste without religious knowledge to support it.