Among you, too, are pious friends of Allah who enjoy an honourable reputation among mankind. For the early shaykhs among you, such as the one entitled Shaykh al-Islām, “Abū al-Hasan Alī ibn Ahmad ibn Yūsuf al-Qurashī al-Hakkārī,” and, after him, the shaykh of spiritual insight and exemplary conduct, Adī ibn Musāfir al-Umawī, “and those who followed their path possessed such virtue, religious devotion, righteousness, and adherence to the Sunnah that Allah exalted their standing and raised their renown. Shaykh Adī”—may Allah sanctify his soul—was among the most virtuous of Allah’s righteous servants and the foremost shaykhs whose example was followed. He possessed pure spiritual states and lofty merits known to those acquainted with such matters. He is widely renowned throughout the Muslim community and remembered with honour.

The creed preserved from him did not depart from that of the earlier shaykhs whose path he followed, such as the righteous shaykh and imam, “Abū al-Faraj Abd al-Wāhid ibn Muhammad ibn Alī al-Ansārī al-Shīrāzī, later” al-Dimashqī, “and likewise Shaykh al-Islām al-Hakkārī,” and others like them.

In the major doctrinal principles, these shaykhs did not depart from the principles of “the people of the Sunnah and the Community.” Rather, their encouragement of these principles, their call to uphold them, their eagerness to spread them, and their open opposition to those who contradicted them—together with their religious devotion, virtue, and righteousness—were such that Allah exalted their standing and raised their renown. Most of what they say concerning these major principles is sound, although their statements and those of their peers inevitably include some views on particular questions