despite his learning and adherence to the Sunnah, his spiritual knowledge, and his religious devotion (1).
In his book “Manāzil al-Sā’irīn,” he mentioned some good and beneficial things, as well as some false things. Yet in it he ultimately arrives at annihilation in the tawhid of Lordship, and then at a form of tawhid that is in reality union. For this reason, he said (2):
“Chapter on Tawhid: Allah Most High says, ‘Allah bears witness that there is no deity except Him’ [Surah Āl Imrān: 18]. Tawhid is to declare Allah transcendent above temporal origination (3).”
He then said (4): “The scholars spoke as they did, and those endowed with spiritual realization (5) alluded to what they alluded to (6) on this path solely in order to establish tawhid correctly. Every spiritual state or station besides it is beset by defects.”
(1) The author of *Manāzil al-Sā’irīn* (*The Stations of the Wayfarers*) was Abū Ismā’īl Abd Allāh ibn Muhammad ibn Alī al-Harawī al-Ansārī. He was known as Shaykh al-Islām and was the leading imam of Ahl al-Sunnah in Herat. He was also called *Khatīb al-Ajam* (Orator of the Persians) because of his profound learning, eloquence, and nobility. He died in 481 AH. For his biography, see *Tabaqāt al-Hanābila*, 2:247–48; Ibn Rajab, *al-Dhayl*, 1:50–68; *al-A’lām*, 4:267; *Tadhkirat al-Huffāz*, 3:1183–90; and *Mu’jam al-Mu’allifīn*, 6:133–34. See also Dr. Muhammad Sa’īd Abd al-Majīd Sa’īd al-Afghānī, *Shaykh al-Islām Abd Allāh al-Ansārī al-Harawī* (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Hadītha, 1388 AH/1968 CE).
(2) pp. 110–13 (French Scientific Institute ed.), edited by S. de Laugier, Cairo, 1962.
(3) “The hadith”: thus in (و) and *Manāzil al-Sā’irīn*; all other manuscripts read “origination.”
(4) Immediately following the preceding passage.
(5) (ن): “The critical scholars indicated.”
(6) *Manāzil al-Sā’irīn*: “what they indicated.”