and strive not to disobey Him. If one sins and disobeys, one should hasten to repent and seek forgiveness, as in the hadith concerning the foremost supplication for forgiveness:

“I acknowledge before You Your blessing upon me, and I acknowledge my sin.”

Likewise, in the authentic divine hadith:

“O My servants, it is only your deeds that I record for you, then recompense you for them in full. Whoever finds good should praise Allah, and whoever finds otherwise should blame no one but himself.”

Through this same approach, some spiritual aspirants came to abandon supplication, while others classified reliance upon Allah and love for Him as spiritual stations belonging to ordinary people. These and similar errors are matters we have discussed elsewhere, explaining what is right and what is wrong in them.

For this reason, these shaykhs’ teachings contain exhortations to follow knowledge and the revealed law. Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tustarī even said:

“Every spiritual experience unsupported by the Quran and Sunnah is false.”

Al-Junayd ibn Muhammad said:

“Our knowledge is bound by the Quran and Sunnah. Whoever has not read the Quran and written down hadith is not qualified to speak about this knowledge of ours.”

And Allah knows best.