the very same phenomena occur among the people known as al-Abdād in India and elsewhere. At times they justify them by analogy with matters that God has truly commanded us to revere—His House, to which the pilgrimage is made; the Black Stone, which He has legislated that we touch and kiss as though it were His right hand; and the mosques, which are His houses on earth.
It was through such analogical arguments that the sun and the moon came to be worshipped, and by the like of these specious doubts did idolatry first spread among humanity.
An authentic report from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—states that he forbade making vows, saying, “A vow brings no good; it only extracts something from the miser.” If a vow to perform an act of obedience, made conditionally, yields no benefit and brings no good, what, then, of a vow concerning something that can neither harm nor help?
As for the answering of supplications: the reason may be the petitioner’s desperation and sincerity; it may be pure mercy from Allah; or it may be a matter Allah had already decreed, not on account of the supplication; and it may
(1) The printed edition reads: “Likewise, the same occurs to them as occurs to the people of al-abdad.”
(2) In MS B: andad (“equals / rivals”).
(3) The maqayis are the logical and rational syllogisms on which philosophers and logicians base their beliefs, and they are not derived from divine revelation. The author has composed an extensive rebuttal entitled Al-Radd ʿala al-Mantiqiyyin (Refutation of the Logicians), which is in print.
(4) From this point up to the words fa-ma al-zann (about a line and a half) is missing in MS T.
(5) This wording appears in a hadith related by al-Bukhari, Book of Oaths and Vows, chapter “Fulfilling a Vow,” nos. 6693–6694 (Fath al-Bari 11:576); and by Muslim, Book of Vows, chapter “The Prohibition of Vows and that They Change Nothing,” nos. 2639, 1640 (3:1260–1263), on the authority of ʿAbd Allah and Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with them).
(6) In MS T: alladhi la yadurr (“that does not harm”).
(7) In MS T: shab-huhu (“its like”).
(8) The printed edition adds: wa-sidq iltija'ihi (“and the sincerity of his appeal [to God]”).
(9) In MS D: qada Allah lahu (“God’s decree concerning him”).