“asceticism and spiritual states” after the first three generations, beginning with Ibrāhīm ibn Adham, al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād, Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī, Ma‘rūf al-Karkhī, and those who followed them, while disregarding the lives of the Companions and Successors, whom the Book and the Sunnah expressly praise and commend, declaring Allah’s pleasure with them.
It would have been better for them to follow Abū Nu‘aym al-Asbahānī’s example in The Adornment, mentioning both earlier and later generations. Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī likewise did this in The Choicest of the Chosen, as did Abū al-Qāsim al-Taymī in Biographies of the Early Generations … (1), and likewise Ibn Asad ibn Mūsā—even if they did not rise to the standard of ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Hannād ibn al-Sarī, and others in their books on asceticism. So much for this. Allah knows best and is most wise.
Knowing the origins and beginnings of things, and knowing the religion, its foundation, and the origins of what subsequently developed within it, are among the most beneficial branches of knowledge. For until a person thoroughly understands the realities of the matters he needs to know, a thorn of unease remains in his heart.
The ascetics had several names: in Syria they were called “al-Jū‘iyyah”; in Basra, “al-Faqriyyah” and “al-Fikriyyah”; and in Khurāsān, “al-Maghāribah.” They were also called “Sufis” and “the poor.”