There are also matters concerning the spiritual path over which the shaykhs have disagreed. Yet the Book and Sunnah contain texts indicating the correct view that most people following this path can understand. Matters concerning the spiritual path are like matters of creed: all are explicitly addressed in the Book and Sunnah. The speculative theologians disagreed only when they turned away from the Book and Sunnah; once they ventured into religious innovations, disagreements arose. The same applies to the path of worship: most disagreements concerning it arise only because people turn away from the prescribed path, fall into religious innovations, and consequently disagree among themselves.

Likewise, disagreements in jurisprudence arose because the Prophet’s explanations of the Law were not clear to them. Such disputes, however, concern its finer points; they do not disagree over its major matters. The Companions themselves disagreed over some of these questions, but they did not disagree over matters of creed or the path to Allah by which a person becomes one of Allah’s righteous friends who are brought near to Him.

For this reason, when most shaykhs needed guidance on legal questions—such as marriage, inheritance shares, purification, the prostrations for forgetfulness, and similar matters—they followed the authority of the jurists, because deriving these rulings from the texts was difficult for them. As for matters such as reliance upon Allah, sincerity, and asceticism, they exercised their own judgment. Those among them who followed the Messenger were correct, while those who departed from his guidance were mistaken.

There is no doubt that religious innovations have proliferated far more in matters of worship and the will than in matters of belief and speech, because people share in the will more widely than