to this world, and sever the heart’s attachment to the body. This is the kind of asceticism practised by the Sabians, the Indians, and others. Thus, you find these people, together with monks who resemble them, undertaking arduous, severe, exhausting forms of worship and asceticism, although these bring no benefit, bear no fruit, and serve no useful purpose—except for whatever slight benefit there may be, which cannot offset the painful torment they experience.

A parallel to this corrupt principle is the praise offered by some ignorant people when they say, “So-and-so has neither married nor slaughtered an animal.” This is praise of monks who neither marry nor slaughter animals. As for those of pure monotheistic faith, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“But I fast and break my fast, marry women, and eat meat. Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not of me.”

These practices are part of corrupt religion, which is blameworthy, just as being content with the life of this world is blameworthy. People fall into several categories: those devoted to “worldliness alone,” who turn away from the Hereafter; and those devoted to a “corrupt religion,” namely the disbelievers and innovators who practise as religion what has not