And among the crafts and conduct: The Farrier ¹ , the Butche ² , the Skilled Thie ³ , the Policeman, the Informant, and the Solitary Night Watchman who is alone with the dogs of the markets and alleys—except for one guarding a frontier, a fortress, or livestock and the like—and the Tanner ⁴ .

And the maker of buckets ⁵ , the blackener of women’s boots, the cleaner of impure sewers, the one who stokes the furnace in the bathhouse, the broker of felt ⁶ , the one who scrubs people's skins in the bathhouse, and the examiner of the [backsides of] mules, donkeys, beasts, and the like. These are fourteen categories of crafts and conduct that every cognizant believer must avoid, beware of, and protect the sciences of Allah from them. For they are the eavesdroppers, the whisperers in the breasts, the possessors of schemes and surveillance, those who infiltrate bodies and are rebellious against the servants [of Allah]. Regarding them, the Master Messenger—may His Might be exalted—said: "If they offer [something] to you, do not take it from them, and if you feed them, let it be at the tips of spears and on the points of arrowheads." This has an inward (Batin) meaning which they do not know and have not comprehended.