Any seeker, even if he was a ahle-hadith, provided he did not consider following the Imams’ (taqlid) impermissible (haram) and did not speak bad or held ill thoughts for the jurist (fuqha) Hakim al-Umma Hadhrat Mawlana Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi (may Allah have mercy on him) would not refuse to instruct him (in the spiritual path) or pass on the (sufi) dhikr or even accept him into the silsila (as a murid).

Ashraf us Sawanih, volume 2 269