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Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Balkhi, may God have mercy on him, says: 'The sciences are three: knowledge from God, knowledge with God, and knowledge of God (by God).'

Knowledge of God is the knowledge of gnosis (ma'rifat), by which all His saints have known Him through Him; and until He defined and made Himself known, they did not know Him. For all the means of acquisition are entirely cut off from the Truth Most High, and the servant's knowledge does not become the cause of gnosis of the Truth; rather, the cause of gnosis of Him—exalted and sanctified—is His own guidance and making-known. Knowledge from God is the knowledge of the sacred law (shari'at), which comes from Him to us as command and obligation. Knowledge with God is the knowledge of the stations of the path of Truth and the exposition of the ranks of the saints. So gnosis is not sound without accepting the law, and the practice of the law is not right without the manifestation of the stations.

And Abu Ali al-Thaqafi, may God have mercy on him, says: 'Knowledge is the life of the heart from ignorance and the light of the eye from darkness.'

Knowledge is the life of the heart from the death of ignorance, and the light of the eye of certainty from the darkness of unbelief. Whoever has no knowledge of gnosis, his heart is dead through ignorance; and whoever has no knowledge of the law, his heart is sick through unknowing. So the heart of the unbelievers is dead, for they are ignorant of God Most High; and the heart of the heedless is sick, for they are ignorant of His commands.

Abu Bakr al-Warraq al-Tirmidhi, may God have mercy on him, says: 'Whoever contents himself with theology (kalam) among the sciences without asceticism becomes a heretic (zindiq), and whoever contents himself with jurisprudence (fiqh) without scrupulousness becomes a transgressor (fasiq).'

Whoever contents himself with the mere expression of the knowledge of divine unity (tawhid) and does not turn away from its opposites becomes a heretic; and whoever contents himself with the knowledge of the law and jurisprudence without scrupulousness becomes a transgressor. The meaning here is that, without practice and striving, the abstraction of tawhid would be [mere] predestinarianism (jabr); and the predestinarian monotheist must be a Jabri in word and a Qadari in deed, so that his way comes right between jabr and qadar. This is the reality of what that elder (pir) said, may God have mercy on him: 'Tawhid is below jabr and above qadar.' So whoever, without practice, contents himself with the mere expression of it becomes a heretic. As for jurisprudence, its condition is caution (ihtiyat) and piety (taqwa). Whoever occupies himself with dispensations, interpretations, and the pursuit of doubtful matters, and, without [following] a school (madhhab), roams among the mujtahids seeking ease, will soon fall into transgression; and all this appears from heedlessness.

And well has the Shaykh of Shaykhs, Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi, may God have mercy on him, said: 'Avoid the company of three classes of people: heedless scholars, flattering reciters, and ignorant would-be Sufis.'

As for the heedless scholars, they are those who have made the world the qibla of their heart, chosen ease from the law, taken up the worship of sultans, made the court of rulers their place of circumambulation, made the esteem of the people their prayer-niche (mihrab), become deceived by pride in their own cleverness, become preoccupied at heart with the subtlety of their own speech, loosed their tongue in reproach against the imams and masters, and busied themselves with overpowering the great ones of religion by outdoing them in speech—so that if the two worlds were placed in the pan of his scale, it would count as nothing to him; then they have made rancor and envy their creed. In all this there is no knowledge, for knowledge is an attribute by which the kinds of ignorance are negated from the one described by it.

As for the flattering reciters, they are those who, when someone's act accords with their desire—though it be false—praise him for that act; and when someone does something contrary to their desire—though it be right—blame him for it; and they seek esteem from the people through their religious dealings, and flatter people in falsehood.

As for the ignorant would-be Sufi, he is one who has not kept the company of a spiritual master (pir), has not received discipline (adab) from a great one, has not tasted the chastisement of the age, and in blindness has donned the blue Sufi garb; he has cast himself among them, and in irreverence treads a path of false expansiveness (inbisat) in their company; and his folly has led him to suppose all others to be like himself—so that then the path of truth and falsehood is confused for him.

So these three groups whom that divinely-aided one (muwaffaq) mentioned, and from whose company he commanded the disciple (murid) to turn away—the meaning was that they are false in their claims and incomplete in their conduct.

And Abu Yazid al-Bastami, may God have mercy on him, says: 'I labored in spiritual striving for thirty years, and I found nothing harder upon me than knowledge and following it.' For thirty years I strove, and nothing came harder upon me than knowledge and following it.

In sum, to set one's foot upon fire is easier for [human] nature than to walk in conformity with knowledge; to pass a thousand times over the Sirat is easier for the ignorant heart than to learn a single question (mas'ala) of knowledge; and to pitch one's tent in Hell is dearer to the transgressor than to put into practice a single question of knowledge. So it is incumbent upon you to acquire knowledge and to seek perfection in it—and the perfection of the servant's knowledge is his ignorance of the knowledge of God, mighty is His name. You must know so much that you know that you do not know. This is the meaning of the saying that the servant can know nothing but the knowledge of servanthood, and servanthood is the greatest veil from Lordship; as one has said concerning this meaning:

'Incapacity to attain perception is [itself] perception, and to halt on the paths of the pious is polytheism (shirk).'

He who does not learn and persists in ignorance is a polytheist; and he who learns and, at the perfection of his knowledge, becomes negated within it, his conceit of knowledge falls away, and he knows that his knowledge is nothing but incapacity regarding the knowledge of his own end—for names have no effect upon the realities of meanings. And God knows best.