and anyone who falsely claims such states is a misguided hypocrite.

Al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyād, the foremost Muslim of his time, said concerning Allah’s words,

“to test you as to which of you is best in deed”:

“It means the most sincere and the most correct.”

He was asked, “Abū ʿAlī, what do ‘the most sincere’ and ‘the most correct’ mean?”

He replied, “If a deed is sincere but not correct, it will not be accepted; and if it is correct but not sincere, it will not be accepted. It must be both sincere and correct. Sincere means done for Allah, and correct means in accordance with the Sunnah.”

He also used to say, “Whoever honours an innovator has helped to undermine Islam. Whoever marries his daughter to an innovator has severed her ties of kinship. Whoever sternly rebukes an innovator, Allah will fill his heart with security and faith.”

When he and other spiritual masters referred to innovation, they generally meant innovations in acts of worship and spiritual states, as Allah said concerning the Christians:

“Monasticism they invented; We did not prescribe it for them.”

Ibn Masʿūd said:

“Adhere to the path and the Sunnah. No servant who follows the path and the Sunnah remembers Allah in solitude and shivers with fear of Him without his sins falling away from him as dry leaves fall from a tree. No servant who follows the path and the Sunnah remembers Allah in solitude and sheds tears out of fear of Him will ever be touched by the Fire. Indeed, moderation upon the path and the Sunnah is better than strenuous effort contrary to the path and the Sunnah. So take care that your deeds—whether marked by strenuous effort or moderation—follow the way of the prophets and their Sunnah.”