and do not follow the desires of those who do not know.”
“They will be of no avail to you against Allah,” up to His words: “And Allah is the Protector of the righteous.”
Rather, such a person follows his own desires without guidance from Allah. Allah Most High says:
“Or do they have partners who have prescribed for them a religion that Allah has not authorized?”
In this, they sometimes follow an innovation that they call a spiritual reality, giving it precedence over what Allah has prescribed. At other times, they invoke Allah’s decree governing creation to oppose His revealed law, as Allah has related concerning the polytheists, as mentioned earlier.
Among these people is a group who rank highest among them. They adhere to the religion by performing its well-known obligations and avoiding its well-known prohibitions. Yet they err by abandoning the means they have been commanded to pursue that are themselves acts of worship. They suppose that once a person of spiritual knowledge witnesses “the divine decree,” he turns away from such things. For example, some of them regard reliance upon Allah, supplication, and similar practices as spiritual stations for ordinary people, not the elect. This rests on the notion that whoever witnesses the divine decree knows that whatever has been decreed will come to pass, so there is no need for such practices. This is a grave error.
Allah has decreed things together with the means that bring them about, just as He has decreed felicity and wretchedness together with their means. As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“Allah created people for Paradise. He created it for them while they were still in their fathers’ loins, and they perform the deeds of the people of Paradise.”
Likewise, when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, informed them that Allah had written down all that was decreed, they asked:
“O Messenger of Allah, should we not then abandon deeds and rely on what has been written?”
He replied:
“No. Act, for everyone will be enabled to do that for which he was created. Whoever is among the people of felicity will be enabled to perform the deeds of the people of felicity, and whoever is among the people of wretchedness will be enabled to perform the deeds of the people of wretchedness.”