I said to him: "O my master, I am an agent for merchants and I have wealth and goods belonging to people; some of them are in Yemen, some in Khorasan, some in India, and some in Iraq. I do not know how to act, so guide me to deliverance." The sheikh said to me: "I do not see a place here that could be for your purpose. If there are means between you and the people, you must return to your country, your house, and your agency. Write to the merchants and make known to them your lack of desire for the agency. When the people come to you and take their wealth and belongings, and no liability remains upon you for any of the people, you shall be the chooser for yourself: if you choose to stay in your country, you stay; and if you choose to come out to us, then come out. Hide yourself from the people, conceal yourself, and be a scholar like an ignorant one, like a silent one. Seek science and act by what you know. For the example of the scholar who acts by what he knows is like the truthful one who acts for the benefit of truthfulness. And the example of the one who acts without knowledge is like a people for whom parables were struck: «And We will regard what they have done of deeds and make them as dust dispersed»1. So He described them with action yet voided their deeds through ignorance. This is my testament, and with Allah is the will regarding His servants, and He is the Most Merciful of the merciful."
This was on Friday and the time for prayer had arrived. We rose to the water and purified ourselves. The sheikh rose, gave the Adhan, and ascended upon stones like a pulpit. He began to deliver the sermon among us, and his beginning was that he said: "Praise be to Allah, the First without beginning, and the Last without end. The Ancient without vanishing, the Remaining without transfer. Eternity that does not vanish, and Justice that does not oppress. Generous who is not stingy, and Forbearing who does not hasten. Noble who is not wronged, and an Eternal Resort (Ṣamad) who is beyond reach. He created the light and the darknesses, the earth and the heavens, the rotating spheres, the