“Do not cooperate in sin and transgression.” (1)
And what sin or act of aggression is more serious than accusing a Muslim of what he is innocent of—indeed, of the very opposite of his real stance? Had some of those who flaunt the virtues we have just described suffered even a fraction of the attack directed at us, they would have hurried to answer back, their very attitude proclaiming:
Beware! Let no one treat us with ignorance,
Lest we outdo the ignorant in their ignorance.
Nevertheless, I hold that re-printing the treatise exactly as it first appeared would yield no appreciable benefit. It was therefore necessary to delete certain notes and to revise a few expressions, refining the style so that it befits this new edition without in any way diminishing its scholarly value or the importance of its discussions.
In the introduction to the first printing I had already stated that the scope of this treatise is confined to two exceedingly important issues: