reviles (1) the leader of the community in this manner, the innovators seize the opportunity to gloat over the people of truth and turn his words into an argument on their side.

The third harm is the cataloguing of faults while ignoring an abundance of virtues that would swallow those faults many times over; that is nothing but injustice and ignorance (2).

The second cause that can lead a man to such behavior is a change in his state and heart, and the corruption of his conduct because of a jealousy that had long lain hidden (3) within him. He suppressed it for a time, then that ambush burst forth in a guise whose outward form is truth while its inner reality is falsehood.

Section

In short—may Allah strengthen you—whenever you see someone assailing (4) your shaykh, first examine his intellect, then his understanding, then his honesty, and finally his age. If you detect confusion in his mind, that alone indicates his ignorance of your shaykh and of what he says about him. The same applies to scant understanding. The same applies to a lack or deficiency of truthfulness, for diminished understanding leads to diminished honesty in proportion to what his mind has failed to grasp (5). Advanced age produces a similar effect (6).