1253 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; my father narrated to me; ʿUbayd Allah ibn Muhammad—meaning al-Taymi—narrated to us; ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Muslim narrated to us, from Harb, from al-Hasan, who said:

ʿAmir ibn ʿAbd Allah used to keep a majlis (study circle) in the mosque, but he abandoned it until we thought he had started to resemble the ahl al-ahwāʾ (people of heterodox passions). We went to him and said, “You used to have a majlis in the mosque and you have left it.” He replied, “Yes. It was a gathering with too much clamor and confusion.” At that we were sure he had adopted the ways of the ahl al-ahwāʾ, so we asked, “What do you say about them?” He answered, “And what could I possibly say about them? I saw a number of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and kept company with them. They told us that the people with the strongest faith on the Day of Resurrection will be those who examined themselves most scrupulously in this world; that the most jubilant of them on the Day of Resurrection will be those who were the saddest in this world; and that those who laugh the most on the Day of Resurrection will be those who wept the most in this world.

“They also informed us that Allah – exalted is He – has imposed farāʾiḍ (obligatory duties), instituted sunnahs, and set ḥudūd (legal limits). Whoever acts upon Allah’s obligatory duties and sunnahs and steers clear of His limits will enter Paradise without reckoning. Whoever performs His obligatory duties and sunnahs, then oversteps His limits, then repents, then oversteps them again and repents once more, will face convulsions, hardships, and terrors, after which Allah will admit him to Paradise. And whoever fulfils Allah’s obligatory duties and sunnahs and then oversteps His limits and dies persisting in that will meet Allah as a Muslim: if He wills He will forgive him, and if He wills He will punish him.”