 readings from Ibn Abad, a letter to a Sufi who has abandoned Sufism to study law. Well, my friend, you prefer jurisprudence to contemplation. If you intend to spend your time collecting authorities and precedents, what advice do you want from me? I can tell you this. Each man today gets what he wants, except that no one has discovered a really perfect way to kill time. Those who do not have to work for a living are engrossed in every kind of nonsense, and those who must gain their livelihood are so absorbed in this that they have time for nothing else, as to finding someone capable of spiritual life, ready to do work that is clean of passion and inordinate desire, done only for the love of Allah. That is a way of life in which no one is interested, except a few who have received the special mercy of Allah. Are you aware of this? Are you sure of your condition? Well, then go ahead with your books of law. It will make little difference whether you do this or something else equally trivial. You will gain nothing by it and perhaps lose nothing, yet you will have found a way to kill time. As you say, you prefer to spend your time doing things you are used to. Drunkards and lechards would agree they follow the same principle quoted from Raids on the Unspeakable by Thomas Merton.