Among them there are great numbers who acknowledge neither the prayer, the fast, the pilgrimage, nor the lesser pilgrimage; who do not hold carrion, blood, or the flesh of swine to be unlawful; and who deny the very existence of Paradise and Hell. They belong to the same breed as the Ismaʿīliyya, the Nusayriyya (1), the Ḥākimiyya, and the Bāṭiniyya, and—by unanimous agreement of the Muslims—they are unbelievers even more far-gone than Jews and Christians.

Accordingly, the sultan’s decrees calling for the establishment of Islam’s rites in their villages—Friday prayer, the five daily congregational prayers, the recitation of the Qur’an, and the public dissemination of the Prophet’s hadiths—rank among the greatest of Muslim interests and constitute the most effective form of striving in the path of Allah.

Such measures will stifle those among them who secretly aid the enemy, bring them under obedience to Allah and His Messenger, and under the authority of the Muslim leaders. Indeed, they are among the very means by which Allah helps to subdue the foe.

What these people perpetrated against the Muslims in the land of Sīs (2) is but one example of their treachery—through which Allah grants the believers victory over them. In this lies a profound divine wisdom (3) and a mighty support for Islam. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “No people ever broke a covenant without Allah granting their enemy mastery over them.” (4)

Were it not for this and the like of it, the Muslims would never have acquired such resolve born of robust faith, nor would the enemy have tasted the humiliation that Allah uses to aid the believers and humble the disbelievers and the hypocrites.