He was also asked about a group of people who had gathered to engage in various forms of corruption. Among them were those who said that the ultimate goal of spiritual realization and the perfection of treading the path consist in abandoning religious obligations. Thus, if one of them is required to pray, he stands up and says, “We have left the Presence and now stand at the door.”

He replied:

As for anyone who regards freedom from religious obligations as the perfection of spiritual realization, this is the doctrine of the heretics among the Qarmatians, the Bātiniyyah, and similar heretics who claim affiliation with learning, asceticism, Sufism, or ascetic practice. One of them says, “A servant performs deeds until he attains knowledge of Allah; once he attains it, religious obligations no longer apply to him.” Whoever says this is an unbeliever and an apostate, according to the consensus of the leading scholars of Islam. They agree that the commands and prohibitions remain binding upon every sane person who has reached puberty until death. Allah Most High says:

“And worship your Lord until certainty comes to you.”

Al-Hasan al-Basrī said, “Allah has appointed no end to the believer’s deeds short of death,” and he recited this verse. Here, “certainty” refers to what comes after death, as Allah Most High says in the other passage:

“And we used to deny the Day of Judgment,”

“Until certainty came to us.”

The same meaning occurs in the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in