and Abu Bakr the Utterly Truthful, God be pleased with him. Among the shaykhs who realized it were Hamdun al-Qassar, Abu Saʿid al-Kharraz, and Abu Yazid al-Bistami. In our time there were Abu al-Suʿud ibn al-Shibl, ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Jili, Muhammad (ibn Qaʾid) al-Awani, Salih al-Barbari, Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Sharafi, Yusuf al-Shabarbali, Yusuf ibn Taʿza, Ibn Jaʿdun al-Hanawi, Muhammad ibn Qasum, Abu ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mujahid, ʿAbd Allah ibn Takhmust, Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Mahdawi, ʿAbd Allah al-Qattan, Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Hassar, and more than the book has room to mention.
Whoever swears by creation,
Perjury does not bind him, however he breaks the oath.
I swear by God, who
Housed spirits within the graves of bodies,
And by the signs of guidance from His light,
That He did not create creation in vain.
If the affair is not as
I have said, my support, pay no heed.
An intellect has failed that covenanted with the revealed Law
To bind itself to what it established, then broke the covenant.
