Imam Shafi`i (d. 204)

Al-hafiz al-Suyuti relates in Ta'yid al-haqiqa al-`aliyya that Imam al-Shafi`i said:

I accompanied the Sufis and received from them but three words: their statement that time is a sword: if you do not cut it, it cuts you; their statement that if you do not keep your ego busy with truth it will keep you busy with falsehood; their statement that deprivation is immunity.¹

The muhaddith al-`Ajluni also relates in his book Kashf al khafa wa muzil al albas that Imam Shafi`i said:

Three things in this world have been made lovely to me: avoiding affectation, treating people kindly, and following the way of tasawwuf.²

¹ Suyuti, Ta'yid al-haqiqa al-`aliyya p. 15
<sup>2</sup> al-`Ajluni, Kashf al-khafa wa muzil al-albas 1:341 (#1089).

Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M. Hisham Kabbani's
The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations (Kazi, 1996) p. 280.

Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions