the abdāl, each of whom advised me, upon parting, to avoid keeping company with youths.” Another said:

“No servant falls from Allah’s favor without Allah afflicting him with the company of these foul creatures.”

Gazing then gives rise to love. It becomes attachment, because the heart attaches itself to the beloved; then yearning, because the heart pours itself toward the beloved; then consuming passion, because it clings to the heart like a creditor who will not leave his debtor. Then comes passionate love, until it becomes enslavement. Someone enslaved by love is reduced to servitude, and Taym Allah means “servant of Allah.” Thus the heart becomes a slave to someone unfit even to be a brother or a servant.

This afflicts only those who turn away from sincere devotion to Allah and harbor some form of associating partners with Him. As for those sincerely devoted to Him, Allah Most High says concerning Joseph, peace be upon him:

“Thus it was, so that We might turn evil and indecency away from him. Indeed, he was one of Our chosen servants.”

The wife of al-ʿAzīz was a polytheist, and despite being married, she fell into the evil she committed. Joseph, peace be upon him, however, was protected by Allah through his sincere devotion to Him, despite being unmarried, despite her attempts to seduce him and her enlisting the women’s help against him, and despite her punishing him with imprisonment for remaining chaste. This fulfilled the words:

“I will surely mislead them all, except Your chosen servants among them.”

Allah Most High says:

“Indeed, you have no authority over My servants, except those who follow you among the wayward.”

Waywardness means following one’s desires, and this matter is among the greatest avenues of following desire. As for those who advocate passionate love for beautiful forms—whether among the philosophizers, such as Ibn Sīnā and his like, or among the Persians, as is related