Hujwiri opens his chapter on the imams of the later generations by confronting those who, lacking the strength to bear spiritual discipline (riyazat), still seek spiritual leadership and excuse themselves by claiming that no genuine masters remain in their own age. He rejects this claim as impossible, arguing that God never leaves the earth without a proof (hujjat) nor this community without a living saint (wali). He grounds the point in prophetic traditions that a group of the Prophet's community will always remain upon truth and goodness until the Day of Resurrection. This doctrine of the perpetual, uninterrupted presence of the friends of God (awliya) in every generation is what justifies studying the lives of recent and contemporary Sufi exemplars alongside those of the earliest predecessors.