As for the statement, “This is a net used to catch the common people,” it is true. Most of them use it merely as a net to obtain food and enjoy one another’s company over meals. As Allah said concerning them:
“O believers, many rabbis and monks devour people’s wealth unjustly and turn others away from the path of Allah.”
Whoever does this is among the leaders of misguidance, concerning whose chiefs it was said:
“On the Day their faces are turned about in the Fire, they will say, ‘If only we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!’”
“And they will say, ‘Our Lord, we obeyed our masters and our great men, and they led us astray from the path.’”
“‘Our Lord, give them double the punishment and curse them with a mighty curse.’”
As for those among them who are sincere, they too use it as a net, but it is a net full of holes: once the catch enters, it escapes, as indeed often happens. Those who have taken up innovated devotional listening on the spiritual path, without a foundation in the sacred law laid down by Allah and His Messenger, have thereby acquired corrupt spiritual states.
And to worshipping Him, loving Him, obeying Him, longing for Him, devoting oneself wholly to Him, and relying upon Him—better than […] (1) of Islam, the Quranic law, and the paths […] (2) leading to the reality that encompasses the welfare of this world and the Hereafter.