The Devils Deception by Imam Ibn AL-Jawzi

T H E D E V I L ' S
D E C E P T I O N S
its import in various ways; whereof the gist is that according to them
Sufism (t(lfawwuj) means disciplining of the soul (rfydtjah al-nafs), and
resistance (mtgahadah) to nature by restraining it from vices and impelling
it to virtues such as asceticism (zuhd), gentleness (pi/m), patience
(1abr), sincerity (ikhkif), truthfulness (pdq) ; etc., such as earn
praise in this world and reward in the next.
I would observe that the first Sufis carried this out; the devil however
deceived them in certain ways, and yet further deceived their
successors. As a century elapsed his hopes for the next century increased,
and he deceived them still further, and obtained complete
control over the later generations.
He started deceiving them by diverting them from knowledge, making
them suppose that the object to be aimed at is action. When he
had extinguished the lamp of knowledge which they had, they floundered
in darkness. He persuaded some to the point that the purpose
of their system was complete abandonment of the world; hence
they discarded what was good for their bodies; compared wealth to
scorpions, forgetting that it was ordained for useful purposes; imposed
all sorts of penances on themselves, so that some of them
would never lie down. T.he aims of these people were indeed good,
only they were