said: "I am he." He said to my Master: "Are you the listener to my speech and the one responsible for returning my answer?" My Master said to him: "Yes, I am the listener to your speech and the returner of your answer."
The King said: "What I have seen from you of worship, ritual, and asceticism is contrary to what I have heard of your reports and those who hold your belief and those who follow your religion toward Allah." My Master said: "And how is that, O King?" He said: "I heard that a group from among the people of Elevation (ahl al-irtifā‘) do not pray, and they claim that prayer is a legal obligation (taklīf) and that obligation is lifted from the gnostic believer. I denied such things from them, yet I saw you both contrary to that. I also heard about these people that they do not pay Zakat, claiming that Zakat is not mandatory and that it is dropped from wealth. They claim that fasting is lifted from them and that breaking the fast in the month of Ramadan is mandatory and obligatory for them, as they oppose the common people in their fasting. Likewise they say regarding Hajj, Jihad, and all the obligations. Along with this, it has reached me concerning these people that they permit adultery and interpret it as being lawful."
My Master said to him: "If I were to explain to the King—may Allah prolong his life—the sections we mentioned regarding those who permit these matters he mentioned, I would be lengthy. However, I say that Allah, Exalted Glory, gives the world to the rational and the ignorant, and that He, Exalted Glory, does not give the knowledge of Him except to those He loves among His servants. An ignorant man will never benefit from knowledge, and Allah will only be worshiped through the intellect; whoever has no intellect has no religion."
The King said: "By what is the rational man known?" My Master said to him: "We have been narrated:
From the Scholar, Exalted Glory, that he was asked about the rational man. He said: 'The rational man is he who understands from Allah His command and His prohibition, acts upon what Allah