And many among those who profess spiritual poverty and the Sufis deviate from acts of obedience prescribed by revealed law. Once their hearts affirm Allah’s oneness and are devoted to Him, they are unconcerned about the prayers Allah has made obligatory and the forms of recitation, remembrance, and supplication He has prescribed. Nor do they mind consuming foods Allah has forbidden, practising innovated forms of worship such as monasticism and the like, substituting listening to whistling and clapping for listening to the Quran, or resting content with the reality of divine decree while disregarding commands and prohibitions. For everything Allah has created points to His oneness, subsists through His perfect words—which neither the righteous nor the wicked can overstep—proceeds from His all-prevailing will, and is governed by His perfect power.

A person may thus possess only devotion pertaining to religion. This necessarily involves both the rational and the religious, the latter being what the Messengers brought: he turns repentantly to Allah, loves Him, relies upon Him, and turns away from worldly life, yet does not observe the prescriptions of revealed law concerning outward actions, whether in what he does or refrains from doing. Conversely, he may observe what is prescribed concerning outward actions without his heart possessing repentance, reliance upon Allah, or love for Him. He may also adhere to obligations known through reason—such as truthfulness, justice, fulfilling trusts, and the like—without observing the obligations of religion and revealed law.

If those in these three categories are Muslim believers, they have mixed their Islam with Judaism, Christianity, or Sabianism, if what they have deviated toward has been altered and abrogated. If, however, its origin was divinely prescribed, then it belongs to the dispensation of Moses or Jesus.