THE INVALIDATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF MUSA AND THE ERRANT SECTS, AND THE EXALTATION OF THE MEANING
We then return to the exaltation of the Meaning (al-Ma'na), majestic is his glory, and the account of what transpired between me and the teacher Musa—the aforementioned Sheikh—and his disciple Rabi'ah, along with his fabricated discourse that lacks any inscribed witness.
So I said to him: "O Sheikh, you are [indulging] 1 in food and drink, while your disciple Rabi'ah is preoccupied with the pleasures of the worldly life, transmitting the secret and the knowledge to every ignoble, depraved person, selling religion for that which satisfies the bellies, and squandering his wealth upon every base, defrauded individual.
Yet it has been narrated from al-Jilli, may God sanctify his soul, that he said: 'Indeed, the opportunist who uses the gnostic recognition of God as a livelihood and exalts himself through it, desiring thereby food and drink so that it may be said: "So-and-so is a scholar," will ultimately grant the recognition of God to those who are completely unworthy of it.'