Whoever abandons them or neglects their performance in this sense has transgressed one of the limits of Allah and neglected an obligation from His obligations, which is the necessary dissimulation and the commanded etiquette. Success is from Allah—except for those who possess a high rank like Abu al-Khattab, Yahya ibn Umm al-Tawil al-Thumali, and others from the People of the [High] Ranks. Among what confirms and proves that he who believes in the Outward (Al-Zahir) is disavowed by the Prophet Saul (Talut), peace be upon him—whereas he who does not believe in the Outward is of his party, except for he who takes from it [the Outward] an amount by which he covers the Inward (Al-Batin)—is the saying of the Almighty in Surah Al-Baqarah:

{And when Saul set out with the soldiers, he said, "Indeed, Allah will test you with a river. So whoever drinks from it is not of me, and whoever does not taste it is indeed of me, except for one who takes [from it] in the hollow of his hand." But they drank from it, except a [very] few of them.} (Al-Baqarah: 249).

Our Master and Jurist, Al-Sayyid Abu Sa'id Maymun ibn al-Qasim al-Tabarani—may God sanctify his soul—graced us by clarifying the meaning of this noble and great verse in the book Al-Bahth wa al-Dilala (The Inquiry and the Indication) regarding the difficulties of the Epistle, by his saying: