groups among those who affirm the divine attributes, who spoke about divine decree in terms consistent with the views of Jahm and the Ashʿarīs. They thus contradicted the attributes they had affirmed, as did the author of Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn (The Stations of the Wayfarers) and others.

As for the leading Sufis and renowned early shaykhs, such as al-Junayd ibn Muhammad and his followers, and Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir and others like him, they were among the most steadfast in adhering to the commands and prohibitions, urging others to observe them, and warning against simply going along with divine decree as those associates of theirs did. This is the “second distinction” that al-Junayd discussed with his companions.

All of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir’s teachings revolve around obeying what is commanded, abandoning what is forbidden, and patiently enduring what is decreed. He recognizes no path whatsoever that contradicts this—neither he nor the great majority of shaykhs accepted among Muslims. He warns against contemplating divine decree alone without observing the commands and prohibitions. This was the failing of those Sufis who witnessed divine decree and Allah’s oneness in lordship, but lost sight of the divine distinction taught by the religion and revealed law brought by Muhammad: the distinction between what the True One loves and what He hates, which affirms that there is no deity worthy of worship but Him.

This is among the most important matters that those who aspire to Allah and tread the spiritual path must observe. Many of the later generations deviated from it and strayed from the right path. This is truly understood only by someone who has turned his heart toward Allah, to whom the realities of things have been disclosed, and who has come to witness His universal lordship and His sustaining of all things. For if he lacks the light of faith and the Quran, through which discernment is attained, enabling him to witness Allah’s exclusive right to worship, which distinguishes between the people of monotheism and those of polytheism, between what Allah loves and what He hates, and between