Know that mingling with people in the manner I have described is the preferred course, which was that of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and all the other Prophets — may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon them — and likewise the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, and those who came after them among the Companions and the Successors, and those after them among the scholars of the Muslims and their most excellent. It is the position of most of the Successors and those who came after them, and it is what al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, and most of the jurists — may Allah be pleased with them all — held. Allah the Exalted said: