and submission alone, unaccompanied by love; or that love entails indulgence in desires or an abasement incompatible with lordship. Thus, it is related that when people discussed love in the presence of Dhū al-Nūn, he said:

“Refrain from discussing this matter, lest souls hear of it and claim it for themselves.”

Some people of spiritual insight and knowledge disapproved of keeping company with those who spoke much about love without reverent fear. Some of the early generations said:

“Whoever worships Allah through love alone is a heretic; whoever worships Him through hope alone is a Murji’ite; whoever worships Him through fear alone is a Harūrī (Kharijite); and whoever worships Him through love, fear, and hope is a believer who affirms His oneness.”

Thus, among later generations, some became so unrestrained in their claims of love that this led them into a kind of folly and pretension incompatible with servitude, involving the servant in a kind of lordship befitting Allah alone. One of them makes claims exceeding the bounds of prophets and messengers, or they ask Allah for what belongs exclusively to Allah in every respect and is not fitting even for prophets and messengers. Many spiritual masters have fallen into this.

Its cause is a failure to fully realize the servitude explained by the messengers and precisely defined by the commands and prohibitions they brought—indeed, a weakness of the reason through which the servant recognizes his own true nature. When reason is weak, knowledge of religion is scant, and love is present in the soul, the soul foolishly gives itself free rein in that love, just as someone foolish and ignorant gives himself free rein in loving another person, saying:

“I am a lover, so I am not to be held accountable for the various things I do that involve transgression and ignorance.”

This is