For all their movements and moments of stillness, outward and inward, draw from the niche of the light of prophethood. Beyond the light of prophethood, there is no light on earth by which to find illumination. In short, what can anyone say of a path whose purification—its first requirement—is the complete cleansing of the heart of everything other than Allah, and whose key is the heart’s absorption in the remembrance of Allah?”

I say:

His words indicate that the foundation of the path is the testimony that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, as I have explained more than once. This is the beginning of Islam, yet he made it the final destination. I have also explained the difference between the path of the prophets and that of the philosophers and speculative theologians. He did not, however, know the way of those who know Allah among the people of the Sunnah and hadith, and therefore did not mention it. It is the unadulterated path of Muhammad, by which all other paths are judged.

Al-Suhrawardī al-Halabī, who was put to death, pursued both rational inquiry and devotional practice. Yet he was a thoroughgoing Sabian philosopher who accepted from prophethood only what agreed with his philosophy, unlike those two and others like them.

Some of them initially know only the method of rational inquiry and syllogistic reasoning, as is the case with most speculative theologians among the Jahmiyyah, Muʿtazilah, Ashʿariyyah, and some Hanbalīs.

Others initially know only the method of spiritual discipline, detachment, and Sufism, as is the case with many Sufis and dervishes who fell into the doctrine of union and unrestricted devotional practice, such as ʿAbd Allāh al-Fārisī, al-ʿAfīf al-Tilimsānī, and others like them. Still others may combine both methods, such as al-Sadr al-Qūnawī and others like him.