Many seekers on the spiritual path, in professing love for Allah, have pursued various courses born of ignorance of religion: transgressing Allah’s limits, neglecting His rights, or making groundless claims with no basis in reality. One of them said:
“I disown any disciple of mine who leaves anyone in the Fire.”
Another said:
“I disown any disciple of mine who allows any believer to enter the Fire.”
The first credited his disciple with bringing everyone out of the Fire; the second credited his disciple with preventing those guilty of major sins from entering it. Some of them say:
“On the Day of Resurrection, I shall pitch my tent over Hell so that no one enters it.”
Such statements, and others like them, are reported from certain well-known spiritual masters. They are either falsely attributed to them or errors on their part. Such words may be uttered in a state of spiritual intoxication, overpowering emotion, and loss of self-awareness, in which a person’s discernment disappears or becomes so impaired that he does not know what he has said. “Intoxication” is pleasure accompanied by a lack of discernment. Thus, some among them would seek forgiveness for such words upon recovering their sobriety. This was the principal aim of those masters who indulged extensively in listening to poems of love, longing, blame, reproach, and consuming passion.
For this reason, Allah revealed a test of love by which He tests the one who professes it. He said:
“Say, ‘If you love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you.’”
No one truly loves Allah unless he follows His Messenger. Obeying and following the Messenger brings true servitude to Allah into being. Yet many who profess love depart from his law and Sunnah and make claims involving