Qawa`id al-Tasawwuf, “The Principles of Sufism,” is one of the works of Ahmed Zarruq that all biographers list among his most important. Zarruq himself gives his reasons for undertaking this work in its opening pages as: “. . .to introduce the principles and foundations of Sufism in a manner that integrates the Sacred Law with the Truth, and links the principles of religion and jurisprudence with the Path.”

Zarruq’s purpose in this is not to prove Sufism’s orthodoxy to its critics, but to maintain Sufism’s integrity by using the criterion of the Law to expose dangerous perversions of practice.

Qawa`id al-Tasawwuf is a monitor’s handbook. ...